Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[zapkitty]

Here’s the A400M turboprop cargo hauler for comparison…

aircraft stats:
length 45.1 meters
wingspan 42.4 m
height 14.7 m
wing area 221,5 m^2
mass empty 70 metric tons
mass maximum 141 t
mass max landing 122 t
mass fuel 50.5 t
mass payload 37 t
# passengers – a cargo carrier, Wiki says 116 troops with full gear
-or-
66 stretchers w/ 25 medics attending…
max level flight speed 780 km/h at 9000 meters (Mach 0.72)
cruise speed: 780 km/h at 9000 m (Mach 0.72)
ceiling 11300 m
range 3298 km at max load

engine stats
# of engines 4 int
type Rolls-Royce TP400-D6
thrust: 8.2 MWe
power-to-weight ratio: 4.41 kW/kg
total thrust 32.8 MWe…

… 6.5 FFs or however you want to allocate caps and ‘trodes amongst the onions…

engine length 3.5 meters
engine diameter 0.92 m
engine mass 1890 kg
total engine mass 7560 kg
total engine mass *plus fuel mass* 58060 kg…

…58 tons for propulsion…

oops… turns out the A400M actually has a fuselage diameter of approx 4 meters… close to the Tu-114
despite my impression to the contrary… but the A400M’s lesser power levels still make a straight
transition to FFs easier than with the Tu-114 layout…