Can a plane land with no engines?

Question

A few of us are here having a debate.

My friend says a plane cannot glide with no engines and it would just fall straight to the ground. Not only this but he also thinks a plane would be better with only one engine running rather than none. I disargee from thinking the plane could not keep control or keep stable with only one wing having an engine.

What do you guys think??

Answer 1

Of course it can; I've done it.  I landed on a road; there was minor damage to a wing when it struck a speed limit sign.  If you have a multi-engine aircraft, one engine is better than none; it can get you to a runway which you otherwise might not be able to reach.

Answer 2

awwww. that's c**p.  you can land a plane with no engines, how do you think a glider with no engines can fly and land?

Answer 3

The real question is, Can a plane land WELL with no engines? The bigger the aircraft, the harder it would be to make a safe landing. They basically have to point it down at a steeper angle to keep the speed up,and pull up at the last minute to land, and have it dead-on to do it safely. The lighter the aircraft, the easier it is, but it's never a certain thing when you lose power, and the Space Shuttle is a pointy brick, it glides like one, and requires such high speed to do it at all, but it does manage to land safely every time from a falling glide, over 100? times now, with no landing incident to speak of.

Bottom line is, your friend is dead wrong, it won't fall "straight down". Any aircraft HAS to have an aerodynamic design, even the shuttle, to fly at all, so they're not bricks, even if sometimes some of them almost are. They may not be stable in a glide, but they will do so if piloted by a knowledgeable dead-stick pilot.

- The Gremlin Guy -

Answer 4

yes

Answer 5

The space shuttle glides in at 10,000 mph..lol and no engines,,,

A typical airliner does have a certain glide slop depending on the the alltitude about 10 to 15 minutes which gives you time to find and alternate airport or a flat land

Answer 6

There are two engines on a aircraft for a reason.same as on a helicopter. They are not solely for extra speed.they are there for safty in case you lose one in flight. they are designed to fly on one.You just don't want to lose one on take off or climb out.Your friend was right about better with one than none/but way off plane can't glide. Whats he think a glider is?

Answer 7

Obviously your friend isn't aware of gliders, they are pulled by a regular plane to the air and released to glide around on their own and handle very well, and ofcourse they land on there own without engines, since they don't have any engines. Tell your friend to read a book about gliders, he obviously has no clue what he is talking about.

Answer 8

In the hands of a good pilot you can "dead stick" almost anything.  Military pilots used to do it regularly.  It's called autorotation for helicopters.

Answer 9

Power off landings are routine.  When you start your own flight training, it will be one of the first things you will begin to practice.  Most airplanes will glide for many miles from typical cruising altitudes, and land safely under complete control.

So your friend is mistaken.

Twin-engine airplanes must be designed so that they can maintain altitude on one engine.  Some older ones can't.

Airplanes with more than two engines must be able to operate normally with one engine out.  There are more rules and options.

It is a very rare thing for an engine to stop in flight, but it does occasionally happen.  Pilots are required to be trained and practiced in handling that situation.

Answer 10

Do you mean with having an engine fail, or fall off the wing???

  I go with you, either way.

Answer 11

If we shut down all three engines on our Boeing 727 at 41,000 feet we would glide just over a hundred miles in no wind. Even a helicopter will glide to a landing but we call it autorotate. Tell your friend he's full of c**p.

Answer 12

The shuttle is one primary example, although it has engines, its at low power because it has soo much velocity coming into earth from space that it just glides down to the runnaway.

Answer 13

Your friend is wrong on the first point, but correct on the second point.

Large airliners don't usually make glide landings, but they can if they have to. See this article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glide...

All twin engine airliners can fly on one engine at any time after they reach a certain speed on take off (called V1).

Answer 14

If you have altitude you can land without engine power.  The larger the aircraft the harder the task at hand.  

When you take your private pilots licence, you simulate landind without power.

Answer 15

it would be able to fly badly, but during landing the engine would be at idle, so as not to bias the slew of the plane.  Many 2 and 4 engine aircraft can still fly on 1 motor.  It may even be a safety requirement.

Answer 16

it is possible to fly a multi engine aircraft on one engine but its not ideal and would require an emergency landing just to be on the safe side, prior to this the aircraft would be trimmed to compensate for uneven thrust. As for total engine failure an aircraft simply becomes a glider but again its not ideal and requires emergency procedures.

Answer 17

the smaller the plane the easier it is to land by gliding but not bigger and heavier plane!!

Answer 18

You can tell your friend that this actually happened in 2001 to an Air Transat airliner en route from Toronto, Canada to Libson Portugal 4 hours into its Atlantic crossing.

The aircraft in question was an Airbus A-330 carrying 293 passengers and 13 crew.  The plane ran out of fuel due to human error and had to glide for 18 minutes before reaching a  military airfield in the Azores Islands.  They were able to control the plane.   They had to do huge swerves  in order to slow down enough to make a landing.  

The pilots made use of something called a ram air turbine which supplied limited power to the hydraulic and electrical systems.

The story of this landing was re-enacted on the TV show Air Crash Investigations (aka Mayday /  Air Emergency).

Answer 19

welll gliders do that all the time... i mean they glide. and they lose one meter for every 22-38 meters of forward flight. I think that is more than satisfactory.

Answer 20

A plane can land without any engines running. Gliders do it all the time, and there are many instances of planes landing after total engine failure. It is usually better to have one engine running than none. The pilot can adjust the dynamics of the wings to compensate for only having thrust on one side, but that thrust does help keep airborn. Remember that airplanes fly because of the wings. The engines are there to push the plane forward fast enough to travel and get enough air over the wings to cause the lift that keeps it up. If the airplane is already traveling, the wings still get lift, and that is usually enough to land ... as long as you can do it quickly enough. The other problem with landing without engines is that engines are used to slow down the airplane after the wheels touch down. Without an engine, you need a longer runway to land on.

Answer 21

It's called a "dead stick landing".

Answer 22

A plane that loses engine power is just a heavy glider. And gliders fly - some longer than others, depending on the aircraft.  Even helicopters (rotary wing aircraft) are still flying when they lose engine power - just not for near as long.  All aircraft have a glide ration calculated with no engine power.  The smaller the airplane, the greater the distance it will travel.

For instance, a plane with an 8:1 glide ratio, at 1 mile in the air, loses engine power.  If the pilot establishes best glide speed, the plane should be able to cover 8 miles of distance before coming down the 1 mile.  This of course, is factored with no wind.

And gliders have a much higher gliide ratio.  Some of the ones I've flown have had as much as 50:1.  The one I flew the most had a 32:1 ratio.

Hope that makes sense.

Oh, and as a note, to those who think it's a 'Pilots License', it is actually called a 'Certificate'.  It is only a LICENSE to learn...

Answer 23

Yes a c-130 hercules for instance can, and it has. And yes with the greater alltitude this makes it easier, however some planes like seaplanes cannot glide that well due to the weight at the bottom, it is dependent on the design of the fuselage (body), and the wings.

Answer 24

Most planes can land without engine power.  The only plane I know that can't, which happens to be a 747 is Air Force One.  It needs engines to land, because without engines running, Bush's stupid and heavy brain full of lard would cause it to drop like a rock.

Answer 25

All planes can glide without an engine. Look at the Space Shuttle. Some glide well and far, others not so well, depending on the size of the wings, weight of the aircraft, and other factors.

Answer 26

How do you think the Space Shuttle lands? It uses its high altitude and speed to make a glided landing. High speed military aircraft do need the engines because they require 140 or more knots just to get air born. Some small private plans could land without an engine. However, very large cargo jets and passenger jets do require engines to land. The bottom line is, it depends on the type of aircraft and what it was designed for. Yes one engine is better than no engines at all on a multi engine aircraft. The reason is that there are very important mechanical components attached to each engine that play a part in keeping the aircraft's vitals running, like the hydraulic, life support and electrical systems. Hope I helped.

Answer 27

Sure.  I've shut down the engine on single-engine Cessnas and Pipers, and landed just fine.