With the ever present need to improve aircraft efficiencies and the steadily rising development costs and gestation times for new airframes, OEMs may consider re-engining existing models as an interim step. For a fraction of the cost of the clean-sheet design (assuming only re-engining with limited other improvements occur), a re-engined aircraft provides significant efficiency gains and expansion of the normal operating envelope. However, the engineering decisions required to re-engine successfully, especially with regards to weight, payload, and range, are by no means clear cut; many viable approaches exist. This paper examines four different methods to re-engine, applied in the context of a 737-800 and A330-300, and the resulting shifts in performance.
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