Powerback

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Powerback is a technical term used in aviation. This describes the backward roll of an aircraft under its own power by reversing the thrust of the engines . A gentler - and the most common - method of reversing an aircraft is the pushback , i.e. pushing the aircraft back onto the taxiway using a special pushback vehicle .

In the past, the advantages of the powerback were the saving of the pushback vehicle and the associated lower airport charges for the airlines, although it was used frequently in the United States in particular.

Today, however, there are many reasons against this form of rolling back an aircraft:

  • Due to the necessary higher engine power when stationary and at low speeds, the risk of engine damage from objects sucked in ( FOD ) is higher than with a normal pushback.
  • The higher engine power causes higher noise pollution at the airport.
  • The free space required for a powerback to prevent objects from flying around due to engine thrust is not available at many airports.
  • The use of the reverse thrust at low speeds reduces the life expectancy of the engine and causes increased costs through more maintenance and greater fuel consumption.

In military air transport, on the other hand, the powerback capability has a significantly higher priority, as one must assume more frequent operations on improvised airfields. So this was z. B. one of the reasons given when planning the Airbus A400M for the decision for a turboprop drive.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ International Air Transport Association : IATA Reference Manual for Audit Programs (IRM) , Edition 5, July 2014, p. 34, Glossary: "Aircraft Powerback : Rearward moving of an aircraft from a parking position to a taxi position by use of the aircraft engines. “ Available online (PDF, 1 MB) ( Memento of the original from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 25, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.iata.org
  2. ↑ Colin Christopher Rice: Restricting the Use of Reverse Thrust as an Emissions Reduction Strategy , Dissertation at the University of Texas at Austin , December 2001, ProQuest Information and Learning Company, Ann Arbor, UMI no. 3049258, available online (PDF, 1.8 MB) , accessed on March 19, 2012
  3. ↑ CFM International : Flight Ops Seminar CFM56-3 , December 13, 2005, presentation available online (PDF; 3 MB) , accessed on August 25, 2014
  4. ↑ TP400-D6 Turboprop - A European Collaboration Program. Royal Aeronautical Society Lecture, Hamburg, September 19, 2006 (PDF; 2 MB).