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Author Topic: Need help from my pilot friends on here... Lyle Romer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1400 From: Davie, FL, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 06-16-2012 01:13 PM                     quote: Leo Enticknap So why can't you start the first engine using "mainline" ground power (rather than a cart), and then push back? The start carts aren't "powering" the engine to start it up. They are blowing air into it. Same as when the APU starts the engines. If I remember correctly the Boeing 787 engines are electric start (due to the much larger integrated generators that can spin the engine acting as motors and mostly electric architecture). Of course, since the 787 is a long range twin, it needs an APU for most of it's flights anyway. They designed it to be able to switch from a turbine APU to a fuel cell APU in the future for efficiency and weight savings when the technology gets there.  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 06-16-2012 06:23 PM                        These days most large turbine engines use air for starting (with the 787 being a new exception as Lyle noted). Bleed air either from the APU or a ground start cart/truck (a.k.a. "the huffer") is used to spin the engine up to starting RPM. Smaller engines (like what you'd see on most regional jets) generally use electric starters to do this. Yes, the 787 is a mostly electric airplane. Even the flight controls are fly-by-glass (fiber optics). By eliminating the need for bleed air ducting for the engines and anti-icing on the wings, the empty weight of the aircraft can be significantly reduced, and therefore be more efficient to operate. At Allegiant we could not dispatch an MD-80 with an out-of-service APU to an airport that did not have a working huffer available - there'd be no way to start the first engine. Many smaller airports, like the kind we used to operate into, were serviced by smaller regional jets that didn't need a huffer; we needed to have one available. That happened a few times while I was there - both the APU and the huffer would go down, and we'd have to find and send a rescue plane to that airport to operate that flight. I'm pretty sure that's true for larger 2- or 3- or 4-engine aircraft too - ya gotta have an APU or huffer to get the first engine lit. Fortunately at bigger airports finding a working huffer is usually not a problem.  |  IP: Logged

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