when a little cessna airplane flies over what would be the typical horsepower of the engine?
July 26, 2009
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– if a fellow a billions of dollars to waste if you paid people to put aircraft engines into a race car would you give race cars a run for their money. just curious
thanks fellows I liked all the answers and put the question to vote
Typical rated horsepowers for engines on such small aircraft might be in the 150-190 range.
Aircraft are designed to run their powerplants closer to maximum output than ground vehicles, so an aircraft engine is often actually producing a substantial fraction of its rated horsepower. In other words, you normally don’t drive with your foot pressing the accelerator all the way to the floor, but it’s fairly routine to fly small piston aircraft with the throttles set at or near 100% power.
The reason for this is that there are no requirements for bursts of power in the air. If you’re cruising along at 90% of full power, you aren’t going to suddenly encounter a situation that requires twice as much power, so there’s no risk in running at high throttle settings. The situation is different for ground vehicles, as they may need a reserve of power for passing other vehicles or for other unusual situations. In the air, you don’t have tractor-trailer rigs to pass, or mountains and hills to negotiate, so you don’t need as much reserve power, and you can afford to keep the throttle setting high. The only real considerations are wear and tear on the engine, possible overheating of the engine, or a possible failure of the engine if you push it beyond the manufacturer’s documented limits.
The same is true for large jets, which often fly in cruise with engines set at high throttle settings, such as 90% of full power.
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Cessna 172 Is the most common at 180 HP, But lighter smaller aircraft can be as little as 90 HP, Such as a Flight Design CT
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Anywhere from 85HP (Cessna 120) to 300 HP (Cessna 207).
The most common is the Cessna 172, which has 150 to 180HP, depending on the year and model. Next most common would be the 150 & the 152, with 100 and 110 HP.
References :
Typical rated horsepowers for engines on such small aircraft might be in the 150-190 range.
Aircraft are designed to run their powerplants closer to maximum output than ground vehicles, so an aircraft engine is often actually producing a substantial fraction of its rated horsepower. In other words, you normally don’t drive with your foot pressing the accelerator all the way to the floor, but it’s fairly routine to fly small piston aircraft with the throttles set at or near 100% power.
The reason for this is that there are no requirements for bursts of power in the air. If you’re cruising along at 90% of full power, you aren’t going to suddenly encounter a situation that requires twice as much power, so there’s no risk in running at high throttle settings. The situation is different for ground vehicles, as they may need a reserve of power for passing other vehicles or for other unusual situations. In the air, you don’t have tractor-trailer rigs to pass, or mountains and hills to negotiate, so you don’t need as much reserve power, and you can afford to keep the throttle setting high. The only real considerations are wear and tear on the engine, possible overheating of the engine, or a possible failure of the engine if you push it beyond the manufacturer’s documented limits.
The same is true for large jets, which often fly in cruise with engines set at high throttle settings, such as 90% of full power.
References :
The answer to the race car question is no. Aircraft engines are optimized for reliability not high power output. You might be amazed to find a 540 cubic inch, six cylinder engine, only putting out 200 HP, tooling along at only 2700 rpm.
In a race car an engine that size would be tweaked up to produce 2000 HP and rev to 10,000 rpm.
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