Murray Street Engine

• United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower. Its tail number was N162UA. It was a Boeing 767-222 http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20010911-1
• Flight 175 had two Pratt and Whitney JT9D-7R4D engines. http://206.18.175.32/Media/boeing767industrydat-1005-1010.pdf
• American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower. Its tail number was N334AA. It was a Boeing 767-222ER.
• Flight 11 had two General Electric CF6-80A2 engines. http://206.18.175.32/Media/boeing767industrydat-1005-1010.pdf

Here are pictures of the engine found on Murray Street:

This is from the Naudet Brother's film "9/11." This one is important. We'll come back to it.

 

This is a very good forum site: http://s1.zetaboards.com/pumpitout/topic/1829738/1/

A member of that forum, someone by the name of "weezula" has apparently figgered the whole thing out. And it seems that he is the guy who created the composite photograph shown above with the cooling duct assembly.

Take note of the engine type this cooling duct assembly is used on. It is used on the JT9D-7 series.

 

This is the cooling duct assembly used on the JT9D-7R4D, which was the engine used for Flight 175:

Here are some of weezula's findings:

The name of the component is HPT Stage1 Cooling Duct Assembly. There is a history behind this assembly as I began to read more. This component was part of the early JT9D-7 series engines that were used in development of Boeing's 747 line of aircraft. The "7" series engines have gone through many revisions but are exclusively used on 747's. Many years later, P&W decided to work with NASA in the development in a new technology to improve engine performance and reliability. This improvement was made specifically to this section of engine. Tangential On-Board Injection (TOBI or "R" for Radial) was the newest improvement to reduce nozzle temperatures by over 2% which could open the door for a more powerful engines based on the "7" series engine. The new model of engine would be called 7R4+Revision Letter. The 7R4D engine is the one that is specified for United Airlines Boeing 767's.

The engine found at Church and Murray didn't seem to be a 7R4D.....it seemed to be a 7J. The only way to confirm this is to search for the engine and take a look at the diffuser casing to verify a match. This was another needle in a haystack but I found it......a photo of a stripped down 747 engine at an outdoor museum. The diffuser casing is a perfect match!

Here is the photo of which he speaks:

Now. He has rotated the photo from what appears to be the Naudet Brother's film, or perhaps some other photo, a photo that clearly displays the big round holes in the diffuser casing. Take note of the arrows to see that they match the JT9D-7 series engine on the 747 shown in the photo. Click to enlarge.

So. We have two data points indicating that the Murray Street engine is a Pratt and Whitney JT9D-7 series engine: the HPT Stage 1 Cooling Duct Assembly which the manufacturer indicates is for use only with the 7 series engine, and we have the diffuser casing of the Murray Street engine matching perfectly the diffuser casing of a 747 engine --for which model of Boeing aircraft Weezula says the JT9D-7 series engine was exclusively used.

So. All data so far seem to indicate that the Murray Street engine is not a JT9D-7R4D engine, as would have been on Flight 175. (And the Murray Street engine certainly is not a GE CF6 engine from Flight 11.)

Unless I'm missing something --and I don't think that I am, though I am no engine expert-- how did a 7-series 747 engine wind up on Murray Street?

Unless I'm missing something, that engine did not come from Flight 175.

So, then, what struck the South Tower? And, uh, where is Flight 175?