How long would it take to 'scramble' a jet airliner?

Question

For example I could get in a Cessna and have it in the air within 3 minutes if I had to. What would be the minimum time to get a heavy jet from cold & dark to airboune. Theoretically.

Answer 1

s***w the ins. If all we have to do is fly and we're parked on the threashold with prestart checks done. maybe five minutes in our exec 727. The apu and each of the tree engine spool up would take all the time.  I'll start while the engineer does his thing with pressurization, fuel, electrics and hydralics. The copilot does everything else. Let the flight attendant close the door. Thirty seconds for flaps and slats and we're gone. Just let the apu flame itself our on lift off. Everything wont be according to hoyle but we'll be flying. We'll pick the clearance up in the air.

Answer 2

About 2 minutes.  This is for a Dornier 328 jet.  Keep in mind this is eliminating all the "nice to do" things such as a preflight, fire extinguishing tests, etc.

You can hop in and have the APU running in 30 seconds (just push two buttons and wait for it to spool up).  You now have the entire electrical system powered and bleed air to start the engines.  You can now start the engines (about 30 seconds each).  Assuming the oil temp is within limits you are now ready to go.

In reality we can easily do all of our preliminary checks and be ready to take off SAFELY in less than 10 minutes.

Answer 3

about 10 minutes.. would have to wait for the pressures to come down and the temperatures to come up.. but if i was warm outside, it would only be about 3 minutes..

Answer 4

More like 45 minutes to an hour.  You have to go all around and pull pins out of the landing gear, start the APU, and all kinds of little functions like that.  And it would take several people or a longer time frame.

So actually, "scramble" and "jet airliner" don't really go together very well.  It would take five minutes just to secure the doors behind you and get upstairs into the flight deck.  And that would be doing everything double-time.

Answer 5

Assuming the jet was ready for something like that and you didn't have to deal with any ATC/clearance/etc. issues -- probably about 5 minutes before taxi, less for an older one without an INS platform to align.