Today I have a question about the spool up on the Airbus A321N.
It was the 12th when I was flying home, whenever the engine was spooling up for taxi and takeoff it made an annoying and painful sound that sounded like turning on an old unused faucet. It was excruciatingly bad, and we had to here it multiple times including during our descent.
Information on the aircraft and flight:
A321N N218HA PHNL-KPDX
I’ve been on the A321N before, and this didn’t sound right. I decided to turn to the community to see if there is some sort of explanation for this.
It’s definitely not the barking sound, this was during any sort of spool up. So on the ground taxiing, taking off, and landing. Even once we got onto the ground. It sounded like the fan blades were stuck because it was sort of like metal on metal scraping, or the sound of something that needs oil.
It’s an A321-271N, Which means it has the Pratt & Whitney 1100G Engines.
These engines use some technology where the engine is a geared turbofan engine.basically they make that weird sound. This sound is perfectly normal and occurs usually when the engine is starting, spooling up or opening reversers.
go to 4:51 and carry on listening till about 4:58, It sounds like a ship horn.
go to 8:01 and listen till about 8:08, you should be able to hear the reverse thrust opening :) (Best video I could find)
Hope this helps.
Also: You are lucky you flew on an A321neo with Pratt & Whitney engines ;)
I’m flying an A321neo this summer but it has the more boring CFM LEAP engines.
