If you want to know how an airplane engine works, continue reading this article. Turbine engines or aeronautical engines are those that are used to achieve propulsion in aircraft, this occurs through the generation of force and thrust.
The engines are divided into several types, the most basic and classic are the following:
- Reaction engines: they are the ones that include the turbines.
- Reciprocating engines: also called piston.
There are propeller motors, which resemble those of a fan; When this is the case, the air enters the engine and is in turn mixed with the gasoline from the carburetor. When the gasoline and air are already mixed, the fuel is ignited by means of a spark plug, then it burns, later it expands, then pushes the plunger in and then causes the plunger to move down the entire cylinder of the engine.
A rod (connecting rod) that is attached to the cylinder will be in charge of making the crankshaft rotate and this in turn will make the propeller rotate; a single cylinder will not be able to make a propeller turn, several will be needed.
Except for gliders, all planes need to have engines, which will vary in number, which can be one or several, depending on the case; The engine is the one that will be in charge of propelling the plane so that it can fly. The number of engines needed by an aircraft is given by its size:
- Single engine (one)
- Twin engine (two)
- Trimotor (three)
- Four- or four-engine (four)
- Hexamotor (six)
The smallest planes are generally single-engine, the engine is placed in the nose or nose, although there are some exceptions where it is inverted, that is, it is placed at the back of the cockpit and the propeller, facing the edge of the vertical tail stabilizer. Those with more than one engine usually have them hanging in a stack under the wings, positioned at the very back of the fuselage in that tail area.
Instructions for an airplane engine
- Planes generally use a jet engine, that is, it is a machine that is responsible for producing thrust; This is responsible for carrying out a succession of thermodynamic transformations towards a fluid. This type of engine is fundamentally based on the following laws: Newton’s 2nd Law: which says that the movement increases its amount to the same extent as the impulse of a force, in other words the force that can be applied to a body will be equal to its mass, due to the acceleration that it develops when the force is applied to it. Newton’s 3rd Law: every action will have an equal reaction and another in the opposite direction; so that you understand better: when you apply a force to an object, it will be applied to you but in the opposite direction (when, for example, you push a wall).
- Types of jet engines
– Turbojet or turbojet: this is the air intake; It has an air compressor, a combustion chamber, a turbine (gas) that is responsible for moving the compressor and finally a nozzle. The air enters the chamber in a compressed way, then it heats up and then expands due to all the combustion that generates the fuel and finally it is expelled by the turbine to the nozzle, thus accelerating to a high speed and facilitating propulsion.
– Turbofan: there is a primary flow that must penetrate the core of the engine (compressors and turbines) and a secondary flow that goes to an annular duct on the outside that is centered with the core; This type of engine has advantages over the turbojet, since fuel consumption is better, so it is more economical, they also have less noise and are less polluting.
– Turboprop or turboprop: this type of engine has a propeller located at the front of the reactor which is powered by a secondary turbine. - Piston engines: these are the ones commonly used in light aviation, this type of engine is very similar to that of a car, only it has three differences:
– Its ignition system is double, that is, each cylinder is made up of two spark plugs, in addition the engine has two magnetos, one is in charge of providing all the energy to the even spark plugs that the cylinders have and the other will be in charge of the odd spark plugs.
– It is air cooled, this means that it does not have to be loaded with a coolant and a radiator.
– The pilot has in his possession a manual control of the air-fuel mixture, with this he will adjust the correct proportion between fuel and air that must enter the cylinders.
