Have you ever wondered how the engines on airplanes fly? Or how do rockets get to their destinations so fast? Or how heavy construction equipment works? Perhaps you’ve even wondered how a Formula One racecar gets so fast? If so then you’re in luck, because we’re here to tell you about the most powerful engines in the world.
General Electric GE90
The massive and futuristic GE90 engine, touted in the 1990s as the world’s largest and most powerful jet engine, had become an embarrassing business failure by 1998.
Launched in 1990 with great fanfare, the GE90 was stuck in last place in a three-engine battle against Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney to power the new Boeing 777 aircraft. Despite its technology breakthroughs, including aviation’s first carbon fiber composite fan blades, the GE90 program faced continual technical and financial setbacks. Some key airlines viewed the engine as too expensive and risky for the 777, designed to fly over the Pacific Ocean with only two engines. GE had expected other aircraft applications for the GE90, but they never materialized.
Troubles culminated in 1998 with GE corporate taking a $275 million tax write-off after cancelling a GE90 upgrade development program to make the engine capable of 102,000 pounds of thrust for a larger Boeing 777 model on the drawing board. The financial press had a field day with the apparent demise of GE’s most expensive new product in decades.
Lycoming XR 7755
Since 1933, the Lycoming Division of the Aviation Manufacturing Corporation had worked to create a high-power engine for the United States Armed Forces. Its first attempt was the 1,200 hp (895 kW), 12-cylinder O-1230, which was outclassed by the time it first flew in 1940. Lycoming’s second attempt was the 2,300 hp (1,715 kW), 24-cylinder XH-2470. The engine had shown some promise, but its performance was eclipsed by other engines when the XH-2470 was first flown in 1943. Lycoming set out to design an engine that was more powerful than any other and that would meet the power needs of future large aircraft.
The sole XR-7755-3 has been preserved by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and is on display in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Many consider the XR-7755 the largest aircraft engine ever built. However, the Soviet IAM M-44 (8,107 cu in / 132.8 L) of 1933 and Yakovlev M-501 (8,760 cu in / 143.6 L) of 1952 were larger engines. At the time it first ran, the XR-7755 was the world’s most powerful reciprocating aircraft engine.
Caterpollar 797
The Caterpillar 797 is the largest truck ever. But unless you work in a mine, you’re probably never going to see one. That’s a shame, because this is the real thing: a vehicle that’s authentically awesome. Not awesome in a jokey monster truck sort of way, and not a goof like a pickup built on a Kenworth chassis, but a big, serious machine built for an epic, real-world task. Mining may well be the opposite of show business, but this truck has star power to spare.
In the video below, you can see The Most Powerful Engines In The World
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Video resource : The Finest
