Engine Life - Hours verses Cycles
DERG
Don't get too hung up over hours representing engine life. The best measure of aircraft engine life performance is cycles, that is, how many cycles are accumulated on wing before the engine requires removal and overhaul. It would be expected that engines on an extended range aircraft flying 10-14 hours routes would accumulate hours rapidly but cycles less so and would stay on wing longer compared to an aircraft that does short flights of 2 hours or less, but with 6-8 multiple flights per day.
Hours are easily understandable by the average person and quite a few advertisements cite long hours accumulated (bragging rights) before engines come off wing.
Even TBO (time between overhaul) cycles vary between operators using exactly the same aircraft and engines. It depends on general operating conditions, high altitude airports, or hot, dry, dusty conditions (desert airports), exposure to sea salts (corrosion), e.g., airports near the sea.
The exception to this would be gas turbines used in electrical power generation or natural gas pumping. There, hours, really defined as years, are the important factor. There are no cycles to speak of. Turn it on, take it up to operating speed and expect it to run 20 years with little attention if the designs are good.
Last edited by Jetdriver; 13th Feb 2011 at 00:09.