Could a Jumbo Jet (747) glide if its engines stopped working? If so how far?



Answers:
The airframe of a B747 in general is designed with a glide number (also known as finesse) of about 15. From the answers given above (sorry to say, but many given are pure rubbish) and what this figure entails, I'm glad to say that the B747 does NOT drop like a brick. (Take off those wings, those of you who claimed to be professional pilots but got this wrong. Shame on you.) So the answer to the first question is yes.

Now, how does this translate? For general range of a glider, it very much depends on the environment it is in. But as a general rule of thumb, the glide ratio (15) roughly equivilates to 15 km of range for every loss in height of a kilometer.
That means, if say the event of the total flameout occurs at FL328 (10 km), it should have about 150 km of range. (Given great circle routes, it's even enough to fly into another airport if flown in the US.)
Do note that the figure is not exact due to prevailing wind and weather conditions which decide the sinking speed (abt 2000 fpm), airspeed, ground speed, routing, etc.

All good pilots that are TRULY qualified will try, during this period of gliding, measures in the EPC (emergency procedures checklist) to ensure that passengers are safe and as a last ditch effort to get the failed engines working again.
as a professional pilot I can assure you the average jumbo can glide for 7 and 3/4 feet.
it would glide like a brick.
I would say it depends on the speed at which it was travelling, when the engines stopped. However, I don't expect it would go to far, bearing in mind it's tremendous weight.
They are designed to glide without engine power, but it all depends on the weight of the aircraft and its altitude
if it is flying at say 10.000 feet when the engines all stop the glide would be about 10,000 feet
If a Boeing 767 runs out of fuel at 41,000 feet what do you have? Answer: A 132 ton glider with a sink rate of over 2000 feet-per-minute and marginally enough hydraulic pressure to control the ailerons, elevator, and rudder. Put veteran pilots Bob Pearson and cool-as-a-cucumber Maurice Quintal in the cockpit and you've got the unbelievable but true story of Air Canada Flight 143, known ever since as the Gimli Glider I hope this helps?
I think it would glide but only for a very short distance - hopefully long enough for the pilot to make an emergency landing!
Yes it can for a while depending on speed an altitude..
The longest without fuel flying record for a commercial air liner is 13 kilometer if i am not wrong
and yes the plane landed safely,except i think 9 out of 11 tyres busted but all the pessengers and crew memebrs were ok..
Not a pilot but every airplane has what is called best glide speed. That's the speed at which the most efficient glide path is maintained. This can be accomplished by a nose down attitude until the speed is achieved. All planes glide. 747 glide ratio is 15:1 approximately. That means for every 15 feet forward it drops a foot. So the how far part of the question depends on how high you are when you lose your engines. If you're at 20,000 feet, you can glide to roughly 56 miles. That's not very far if you're trying to find a place to put down a 747.
Aircraft rely on speed to create lift (for reasons which aren't necessary to explain here). Therefore if an aircraft is already flying when its engines fail, it will continue to glide, as it will still have velocity and thus still have lift. How far it would go? I don't know. But I reckon that most aircraft could be landed without engines. And if they lose too much speed they can always go into a nose dive in order to gain speed, and then flatten out. Tricky but very possible within the laws of physics.
Airplanes do not simply drop like a brick when the power shuts down. All airplanes are capable of some sort of glide, and as long as there is forward motion and air is passing over the wings, the wings will continue to produce lift. Power-off glides are part of every student pilot's basic training.

A heavy airplane like the 747 will not be capable of maintaining altitude for a long distance, but it would be possible for it to do a controlled descent to a landing (glide) if there's an airport nearby.
Believe it or not, this actually happened to a British Airways Jumbo 747 back in 1982. It flew through a cloud of volcanic ash at FL370 (37,000 feet) and all 4 engines stopped. That's right - ALL 4. The Jumbo turned into a glider and without any power, flew on in a gentle(ish) descent until it reached FL130 (13,000 feet) when the pilots managed to re-start one of the engines and halt the descent. I think they eventually re-started a 2nd engine and then safely landed at Jakarta airport.
Yes, but it depends on the altitude, speed, wind speed and direction and of course, pilot skill
Of course it can glide as long as it has sufficient forward motion.
Visit this webite for a dramatic account of how a British Airways 747 fell 24,000 feet when all 4 engines failed:

http://www.nw.faa.gov/releases/volash.ht.

An amazing story!
It would take something VERY unusal for all engines to fail,the one talked about above about the one flying through a volcanoe cloud is one such case,the engines restarted due to the amount and force of air being pushed through the engines which blew out the dust and enabled them to restart(in a simple explanation)
A plane could safely land on one engine.

i work in the aerospace industry and have worked extensively on engines(Rolls-Royce)

The answers post by the user, for information only, UKQnA.com does not guarantee the right.

  • What do the signs on the M25 mean?
  • what kills my car battery?
  • I'm searching the demand in market for In-car GPS?
  • Driving on the left / right?
  • Wheres the furthest anyone has ended up because of falling asleep on a train or bus??
  • Why is it motorists are always being targeted?
  • will you tell me about the cars that you like?
  • All car crivers should be made to travel in an artic to see wot we have to deal with on a daily basis Y or N?
  • A bloke sticking up for female drivers.(!?!)?