what happens if all engines fail?

[iwannaloveflying]

on aircrafts like a319 and 737? as it scares me im curious, or landing gear fails?

[Barb-SAN]

Here's a link to a thread about the "Gimli glider", a 767 which ran out of fuel at 41,000 ft. http://www.takingflight.us/forums/showthread.php?t=6825&highlight=engine+failure
The fear of all the engines failing is one that's come up here from time to time. I think statistically it's very unlikely to happen. You can do a search for other threads on that topic (the search function is located on the darker green line near the top of the page).
Here's a link to another thread: http://www.takingflight.us/forums/showthread.php?t=1248&highlight=total+engine+failure

[EyesSkyward]

Ah, the Gimli Glider. Love that story! :)

Anyway, yeah, the chances of even one engine failing is mighty slim. The chances of all of them going is astoundingly remote. The Gimli Glider was a fluke of the highest order (and was caused by a stupid "human error" fueling mistake).

But since you ask, the engines don't make a plane fly: the wings do. Which is why any plane, from a tiny crop-duster to a jumbo jet, can fly without engines. It generally can't climb, and it will slowly lose a bit of altitude for every foot it moves forward, but it still stays up in the air, gliding along in a controllable fashion.

By law, every pilot trains for this and gets practice (either real or simulated) in flying a plane without engines.

It's kind of like coasting on a bicycle. Just because you're not pedaling, that doesn't mean you just instantly fall over and crash, does it? No, you keep going forwards as long as momentum carries you.

If you happen upon a hill, you can coast right down it just fine--the slope of the hill gives you all the momentum you need. If it was nothing but hill all the way down to where you wanted to go, you wouldn't have to pedal one bit if you operated the bike correctly.

A plane is the same way. You can coast the plane down a "hill of air" all the way to a suitable landing site. In fact, the "hill" is created by the actions of the pilot.

That is, if you want to go faster, you can tilt the nose of the plane down and make the hill steeper. But if you had a long way to go, you might not want to waste all that altitude so quickly, and you would bring the nose of the plane up to "flatten out" the hill, which would also cause you to fly slower. Piece of cake!

Incidentally, did you know that there's one very famous aircraft that never uses engines when it lands? That would be the Space Shuttle! Once it enters the atmosphere, it glides all the way down to the ground without rocket power.

- Jeff

[Barb-SAN]

Thanks, Jeff...;)...I like the bicycle on a hill analogy!
We made paper airplanes (gliders) in ground school to illustrate the principle of lift (how planes fly). Even though it was a simple project, it really helped to reinforce the idea that a plane can stay up in the air awhile without engines, as it glides back to earth.