Question: how long shoud a engine last?

Sarah Hunt answered on 3 Nov 2016:

Hi Miranda, that’s a brilliant question thank you! It does depend on the type of aeroplane engine and the distance it flies each day. But engineering is all about getting a feel for things. So let’s make a quick calculation 🙂

We call how long the engine lasts, the ‘life’ of an engine (just like humans! So I’ve had 27 years ‘life’, do you think that is very old? Haha). But with engines instead of years of life, we work with ‘cycles’. Or in other words, how many flights the engine can make before it needs to be fixed.

Let’s assume we have an aeroplane that flies to France twice every day. A typical ‘life’ of this type of engine is 3000 ‘cycles’.

So we think this engine will last 3000÷2=1500 days.

There are 365 days in a year. So, that’s 1500÷365=4.1 years.

The engine will last just over 4 years! That’s interesting for me too. Do you have a calculator Miranda? You can check my calculation is correct if you want to.

Thanks!
Sarah 🙂