Hey Teroc, appreciate the kind links you've attached. I've gone through it, beyond the pasted links and found them really useful. :o)
There are 3 major engine manufacturers in the market: Pratt and Whitney, Rolls Royce and General Electric, (now there's even an Engine Alliance btw PnW and GE) The aviation world is really amazing! :o) Have gone through the websites and I'm convinced that these are the turbo fan engines.
Question: It seems that GE 90 is the world record holder with 120,000 Ibs of thrust. The rest of RR Trents and even GE 7000 engines average produce thrust of only abt 90,000 Ibs of thrust. Does this high thrust value makes it more attractive? I din think so since the A380, a much larger plane compared to the B777 (which GE 90 is meant for) only needs a Trent 900 to keep it going. I guess it's fuel efficiency airliners are concerned with but seriously how reliable are the SFCs given and how much difference these really means? Perhaps it's the price which makes all the difference? Which brings me to asking if anyone has a link to price guide for these engines?
Hey Dusty B, I read somewhere that there is a maximum speed restriction during descent due to the Landing Distance Available (LDA) and hence there is a need for a heavier aircraft to make a shallower descent. ie a lighter aircraft can descent faster and later. Not sure if that is true though.