What is the role of a flight engineer? And is it an obsolete position?

Question

What is the role of a flight engineer? And is it an obsolete position?

Answer 1

The Flight engineer is in charge of many things, for example, calculating fuel left, fuel burn, electrics, circuit breakers and many other things. He also could help the crew in emergencies as well as go about the cabin checking fro potential problems. This job is now partially done by the captain and FO. Most is now done by computer that calculates  and checks the aircraft. Many aircraft operate with this system. I think that the position is obsolete in newer aircraft. But for older ones it is a key position.

Answer 2

The Flight Engineer is obsolete in the civilian world, he is not obsolete in the military world.

He flies on many types of military aircraft and perfoms both maintenance and flight duties.

On the Hercules he manages the fuel control panel while in flight, and does all the pre-flight inspections on the aircraft, he would fix any faults that he can. Bigger faults will be repaired by a mobile repair party.

In helo's he calculates the take off weights and makes coffee for the pilots. Most of his duties revolve around the maintenance of the aircraft and handling of passengers.

Answer 3

Yep obsolete. I ended my career as chief pilot on an executive 727 and loved the beast. It and the mustang were the two classics I always wanted to fly. Lucky me, a former boss had owned a mustang D called "minuteman" and my last boss wanted a bigger airplane than his gulfstream so we bought the three holer from Leona Helmsly. The airlines don't need one now ofcourse but our engineers were a&p certified and highly experienced wrenching on Boeings so they made life like gravy for me on the road. Eventually we began carrying an "engineer" on the Gulfstream too just because it made sense and they were already on the payroll. And having that third set of eyes in the cockpit served us well on many occasions.

We had one guy I named hatchet jack. Jack was in his sixties and drank skydrol for breakfast instead of coffee. One day in Rome the three of us were running through our flow checks in the cockpit when I heard Jack utter a obscenity as he got up from his chair at the FE panel. He rustled around for a minute behind my seat looking for something and stormed out off the flight deck cussing under his breath. We were already running late and the boss's limo was expected any minute so I was becoming less than my usual happy camper self.

A few minutes later the first officer and I heard and felt a banging coming somewhere from under the floor a few feet behind us. Dan, in the right see looked at me,

"What the fvck is that?" he asked.

"I don't know but I’m gonna find out. No time for this S**t" I said as I walked aft. The aft air stairs were down as usual since corporate aircraft rarely have a gate for boarding pax. The banging was clearly coming from the front and as I was walking forward under the wing, I saw Jack's legs sticking out of the nose gear well. With one final bang he bent and emerged from the gear well carrying the crash axe.

"It’s ok now cap. No pressure regulator valve’s gonna fvck up my dispatch reliability record. Let’s get back to work before the boss shows up." as he walked back toward the airstairs.

I just shook my head wondering how I ever thought I was in charge around here. He’s been hatchet jack ever since.

Answer 4

ya man you are right.actually the flight engineer only sit in 747 aircraft and you know now a days there are many many other aircrafts are coming.and 747 is so old and it is also going to obsolete in next 5 years so then there is no need of flight engineer than.

THE CAPTIN IS BEST after that 1st officer is also OK

Answer 5

For the most part yes, they are obsolete. In the old days, there were Professional Flight Engineers. That is a flight crew member that  only performed Flight Engineer duties such as monitoring aircraft systems and even maintaining fuel balance for weight and balance issues such as in the Concorde supersonic jetliner. Professional flight engineers never upgraded to pilot and in most cases they were required to have a mechanic license. It was also common to start an aviation career as a flight engineer (as your truly) As designs improved the need for flight engineers became obsolete (many airlines cheered at this for cost savings) but there are several airlines that still employ them. UPS, FedEx an even American Airlines still have them as well as most charter and cargo airlines. Some popular aircraft that are still flying in commercial service today and require flight engineers are:

B-727, B-707, B-747 (older models like the 200 series) A-300 Airbus, DC-8 and DC-10. Ahhh, those were the days!

Take care

Answer 6

Back in the old days of jet airliners all the systems of the aircraft were monitored by a flight engineer.  Once the age of glass cockpits came along all of these systems could be consolidated in to one or two screens that could be easlily managed by two pilots.  This also helped save the airlines money because they did not need that third position anymore.  There are still some aircraft that fly today that require the position, but not many.

Answer 7

In the old days of the USAF, I'll agree that the FE was valuable, given the multitude of gauges on multi-engine aircraft, especially the ones with props. They did fix some things every now and then too. However, now they just whine to get a simple light bulb changed or a s***w tightened anymore.

With the advanced monitoring systems we have today, caution lights come on, alerting the pilot(s) to check a particular system. The C130J has no FE position.

I will admit he does add another set of eyes for situational awareness.

Answer 8

Before computers were available to diagnose and analyze in-flight problems a man with proven maintenance background was part of the flight crew.  He was the Flight Engineer.  In the civilian world he was the Second Officer.  In the Military he was also responsible for maintenance of the Aircraft in remote locations.  

He's obsolete because he's been replaced but there have been many incidents of Aircraft loss that may not have occurred if there was one more opinion or one more person to overcome when taking over the cockpit.

Answer 9

do you mean 'aeronautical engineer'?,....well they design airplanes,does something to do with the planes repairs,etc,...the position isnt obsolete,...well one thing is for sure,....their job is kinda tougher than the pilot's!,...