I ran across an interesting set of post-9/11 photos and I noticed this picture in particular:
The closest item on the truck looks a bit like an airplane engine, but I can't tell for sure. Is it one of the engines from the 9/11 aircraft?
I ran across an interesting set of post-9/11 photos and I noticed this picture in particular:
The closest item on the truck looks a bit like an airplane engine, but I can't tell for sure. Is it one of the engines from the 9/11 aircraft?
They are definitely not jet engines. They look more like electric motors or generators or blower units or something.
It's too big and too intact.
In a turbofan engine, you see the fan upfront. The casing (nacelle) surrounding the engine would not survive. And the remaining core that runs the engine is much smaller compared to the fan and engine, in diameter and length, respectively.
For comparison, this is the remaining core from the 737 Max crash in Ethiopia (lower-right corner):
These are very large electric motors, used in HVAC plants or water distribution, probably. Or possibly main generators out of a diesel gen-set.
They are very dense and tough by design, though certainly beat to snot; they may have been inside a building that collapsed. They are on the trailer together because they are going a scrapper who specializes in hacking copper out of motors. Copper is worth $4-8 a kilo depending on market. They use copper for such windings because copper has the best conductivity per volume, for more efficient use of the magnetic fields.
Such a thing is far too heavy and dense to be any part of any airplane. Generally speaking, copper's density works against it in aviation applications; aluminum delivers the same conductivity at almost half the weight (although at nearly double the volume, but volume is not as important as weight).
Those are Elevator shaft motors, they're wound for high starting torque, not like most pump motors.
Here is one of the motors from 2 other angles. It's on exhibit at the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial & Museum.
Photo 1 (Source "More Than Route 66" blog):
Next to the radio tower was an elevator shaft motor also recovered from the rubble. The motor was most likely from one of the express or service elevators from inside the north tower.
Photo 2 (Source Edward Stojakovic):
9/11 Memorial Museum - Elevator Motor
Unlike many of the others who have responded here, I have relatively little expertise in identifying motors and wouldn't be able to distinguish a pump motor from a high-torque lift motor at a glance.
I'm not even very expert when it comes to jet engines.
However, I do think that one reasonably reliable heuristic is this: if it appears to be attached to a large block of concrete, it is almost certainly not part of an airliner.
On that basis I think I can say with confidence that these are not jet engines.