- Jeremy T
Jet Engines Currently Destined for Scrap Jet Engine Recycling
Worn out jet engines destined for the scrap heap still have a lot left to give in terms of valuable metals like stainless steel, titanium alloys, and cobalt.
Because jet engines need to be 100% reliable, they are built to last. Eventually, though, even the mightiest of jet engines will succumb to the ravages of time to end up on the scrap heap. On average, a jet engine will deliver around 30-years of service, but this figure is highly dependent on many variables and can fluctuate wildly.
There are several jet engine models currently coming out of service, representing a significant portion of the available scrap jet engine recycling market. These models include:
Pratt Whitney JT8D
Pratt Whitney JT9D
Rolls Royce RB211
General Electric CF6
CFM International CFM56
Pratt Whitney F100
In the rest of this article, we will have a look at each of these engines in more detail.
Pratt & Whitney's JT8D
The JT8D has proven to be a stable workhorse in the aviation industry, serving more than 673 million flying hours since first being introduced in 1964 in Boeing's 727-100 aircraft.
There are eight variants in the JT8D family, with thrust ranges covering 12,250 to 17,000 pounds. More than
14,000 JT8D engines have rolled off the production lines to power airplanes including:
Aerospatiale SE201 Caravelle Super 10-12
Boeing 727
Boeing 737-100/-200
Boeing MD-80
McDonnell Douglas DC-9
Email us here with photos and location information to receive pricing for your scrap JT8D jet engines.
Pratt & Whitney's JT9D
The production of the JT9D in 1970 heralded in a new era of aviation, with the high-bypass ratio workhorse perfectly suited for wide-body aircraft typical of the commercial aviation industry.
There are three different series in the JT9D family. The JT-9D-7 engine delivers 46,300 to 50,000 lbf, the JT9D-7Q series is capable of 53,000 pounds of thrust, while the -7R4 series (later models) are capable of 48,000 to 56,000 pounds. The -7R4 engines are twinjet installations able to provide 180-minute Extended Range Twin-engine Operations (ETOPS).
Aircraft powered by the JT9D include:
Airbus A310
Airbus A300
Boeing 767
Boeing 747
McDonnell Douglas DC-10
Pratt & Whitney still support the JT9D engines, with Reduced Cost of Ownership Kits available for increased durability and thrust capacity, while also reducing noise output.
If you have any unservicable or scrap JT9D turbine engines that you would like to recycle please email us here with photos and location information to receive pricing.
Rolls Royce RB211
During the 1960s, twin-spool arrangements were deemed the most efficient design for jet engines. Rolls Royce had the idea that if they could better match the airflow mass to the compressors, a three-spool engine would prove to be a more efficient design.
The RB211 was the first of these engines to go into production, and the design helped propel Rolls Royce from
an already significant force in the aero-engine segment into a dominant global player.
Rolls Royce produced four variants for the RB-211 family, including:
RB211-524D4
RB211-524G
RB211-524H
RB211-524G-T
In terms of thrust, the RB211 family is capable of between 41,030 lbf and 59,450 lbf, but the engine does add an
extra 1,000 lbs of weight to the frame.
Aircraft fitted with RB211 models include:
Boeing 747
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar (often referred to as the ten-eleven)
Boeing 757
Boeing 767
Rolls Royce continued production of the RB211 from 1972-1989. Over this time, 1,250 RB211s have amassed a total flying time of over 69 million hours and 40,000 plus hours of on-wing life.
Oryx Metals is the global leader in recycling RB211 jet engines. Please email us here with photos and location information to receive pricing.
General Electric CF6
Since its release into commercial service in 1971, the General Electric CF6 has racked up an impressive record of reliable service powering wide-bodied aircraft. Collectively, the jet engine model has accumulated more the 430 million flight hours and powered more than 13 different aircraft types over more than 155 million flight cycles.
A few of the aircraft using the CF6 powerplant include:
McDonnell Douglas DC-10
McDonnell Douglas MD-11
Boeing 747
Airbus A300, A310, and A330
Boing 767
The CF6-80A and -80C2 engine variants gained a reputation as extremely reliable engines. The Boeing 767 received approval for 180-minute ETOPS operation, while the A300 and A310 received 138-minute ETOPS.
To get the process started on recycling your CF6 jet engines please email us here with photos and location information.
CFM International CFM56
The CFM56 was developed by CFM International, a joint venture by Safran Aircraft Engines and GE Aviation. Both companies each developed construction lines for the different components they were to supply, while GE completed the final assembly in Ohio.
The engine first performed in 1974, but interest was so slow to develop that the project was almost dissolved as it did not receive orders for five years.
Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Flying Tigers, and the U.S. Air Force eventually rescued the CFM56 from oblivion, with the first order placed in 1979. Since then, the powerplant has gone on to become one of the world's most popular turbofan jet engines.
As of June 2016, the CFM56 had delivered more than 800 million flight hours, with more than 2,400 CFM56
powered jet aircraft in the air at any one moment. In October of 2017, the CFM56 had racked up more than 31,000 units, with 560 operators putting 24,000 of those into service.
Because of its massive popularity, the CFM56 is responsible for powering many different jet aircraft models, including:
Douglas DC-8 Super 70
Boeing E-6 Mercury
Boeing 737 Classis
Boeing 737 Next Generation (737 AEW&C, C-40 Clipper, and P-8 Poseidon)
Airbus A340
Airbus A320 family
The CFM56's first shop visit is also hard to beat, with the engine regularly making it to a highly respectable 30,000 hours and the record standing at a whopping 50,000 hours.
Please email us here with photos and location information to receive pricing for recycling your CFM56 jet engines.
Pratt Whitney F100
The Pratt and Whitney F100 famously powers the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F-15 Eagle but started as a project for the F-14 tomcat at the behest of the United States Navy and the United States Air Force in 1967.
There are four variants of the F100:
F100 - 100
F100 - 200
F100 - 220/220E
F100 - 229
The F100-PW-100 first saw service in 1972, powering the F-15 Eagle with a thrust of 23,930 lbf. There were teething problems with high wear, hard afterburner starts, and stalling.
The F100-PW220 fixed many of the -PW-100's problems, which were achieved with only slight modifications. However, the engine still had issues that needed resolving, such as poor reliability, short service life, and high maintenance costs.
The F100-PW-220/220E successfully resolved most of the issues of the first two variants, all but eliminating stall-stagnations and increasing the time between overhauls to almost double. Maintenance issues were also significantly reduced with the updated jet engine.
The F100-PW-220 first saw service in 1989 with a thrust of 17,800 lbf, and the afterburner increasing that to 29,160 lbf. This unit can currently be found powering the F-16s and F-15Es fighter jets. Other aircraft powered by the F100 include the Vought YA-7F and the Northrop Grumman X-47B.
Pratt & Whitney produced more than 7,200 F100s, with the engine logging over 24 million flight hours.
Oryx Metals has purchased scrap F100 turbine engines from Deference Departments and Scrap Yards over the years. Please email us here with photos and location information to receive pricing.
Want to Learn More About Scrap Jet Engine Recycling?
As we stated at the beginning of the article, jet engines are made tough. After all, they shoulder a lot of responsibility in delivering civilians safely around the globe, as well as in defense of the country.
The extra durability presents many challenges to the scrap jet engine recycling industry. It takes specialized equipment and a team of experts to get every ounce of value out of a scrap jet engine.
Contact Oryx Metals to Recycle Your Scrap Jet Engines
If you are interested in learning more about scrap jet engine recycling, and how those jet engines gathering dust and taking up room in your storage can finally return some value, head on over to www.oryx-metals.com, where our team of highly experienced experts would love to answer any questions you might have.