Larry Dighera wrote:
U.S. regulators are near to concluding that jetliners with two
engines are as safe as those with three or four engines and
should have the same flexibility in flying long-distance
routes, a report said. The Federal Aviation Administration is
nearing completion of rules that are expected particularly to
benefit BOEING CO.'s twin-engine 777 airliner, The Wall Street
Journal said. The rules also are expected to benefit Boeing's
strategy of building planes capable of flying passengers
directly to their destinations without transferring through
busy hub airports, the Journal said, citing industry officials.
Twin-engine planes currently have to stay within 3-1/2 hours of
an emergency landing strip while flying across wide expanses of
ocean or polar terrain, the newspaper said. Chet Ekstrand, a
senior Boeing safety official, said on Friday that he does not
expect the final regulations will have any changes of substance
from a draft the FAA released in November 2003. Officials from
the FAA and Boeing rival Airbus declined to comment. Airbus is
owned by EADS and BAE SYSTEMS PLC.
(Reuters 03:37 AM ET 06/05/2006)

Mo

http://q1.schwab.com/s/r?l=248&a=122...a&s=rb060 605

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The FAA/JAA terminology for this type of certification was ETOPS
(Extended-range twin-engine operations). The plane, along with engines
and complement of nav/com systems, is certified to fly on one engine
for more than one hour from an airport when over water. Based on
cumulative reliability, the length of time can be extended. Certain
versions of twins like the B757, B767, A310, A330 were approved for
ETOPS. The B777 was actually ETOPS approved from the launch date -
quite an accomplishment for a new plane with new engines. One of the
marketing battles between Airbus and Boeing was the A340 versus the
B777 - four engines versus two. ETOPS had a lot to do with the success
of the B777. In the satellite communications community, we used to
refer to ETOPS as "Engines Turn or Passengers Swim".

Brian