How jumbo jet engines are made [video] | Hacker News Reader

How jumbo jet engines are made [video]

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84 pointslisper17 comments

The part about making hollow fans using inflation technique was fascinating. That is some serious creativity and engineering.

If you found this interesting, you might also like this recently posted documentary on how 747s get disassembled, inspected and put back together every few years:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10921930

Interesting, I watched a similar documentary from the GE side and I was under the impression that both companies were making composite fan blades. I guess that may just be GE while RR makes the hollow titanium blades (which are pretty amazing).

GE does make composite fan blades, but not for A380 engines.

GE supplies engine to A380 through joint venture with Pratt and Whitney. That engine is GP7000 and it also uses hollow titanium blades, just like Trent.

Was that because the technology wasn't there yet or because titanium ones are in ways superior to composites?

Also I was curious why they didn't user any advanced ceramics in the turbine considering the temperatures involved, instead they used metal with cooling holes (and underlying heat sink structures).

[Edit] I'm an idiot, disregard.

This is as good a place as any to ask, are there any good documentaries about how various stuff is made that isn't entirely fluff interviews & panning over assembly lines without any explanations about the engineering involved?

In Germany we have "Die Sendung mit der Maus" and there the specific part "Sachgeschichten". It's primarily aimed at children, though. https://www.youtube.com/user/Sachgeschichten

How It's Made is decent. Not much actual engineering talk though.

No humans speaking, just 90 minutes footage of the BMW i3 car production / assembly line. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29VHdcOvnK8

It's incredibly hard to find really good documentaries, they are basically all fluff pieces as you mentioned :/ I have however good experiences with old docu's on Youtube (propably made in the 80s/90s and digitized from video casette). These kind of docu's don't have as many bad interviews as modern ones and just have more content imo.

AgentJayZ on YouTube is amazing for understanding everything about jet engines/power turbines. Seriously great channel.

Thanks for that pointer - that is a seriously cool channel - I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm really digging the videos discussing how to correctly assemble a jet engine.

All of it? It's an hour-long BBC documentary, I'd hope it has something useful.

Well, it shows how jet engines are made, and it's produced in the UK. Rolls-Royce are the UK's largest manufacturer of jet engines, so it makes sense it would be about their process rather than any other.

Very interesting how the jet engine is a complex mechanical device. Sure there might be some software controlling it from the cockpit but the bulk of the work is mechanical.

I wonder what they would be like if they were made by software engineers.

People tend to behave differently when lives are at stake.

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