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

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

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

Answer 4

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...

Answer 5

747 Glide Ratio

Answer 6

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.

Answer 7

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.

Answer 8

If you were flying a B-747 at FL450 (45,000 ft.) which is the max. flight level for .75 mach commercial aircraft such as the B-747 (.75 mach = approx. 550 mph) and you lost all four engines, you'd be over the City of London, Ontario by the time your speed decreased to around 180 mph (the approx. glide speed for the aircraft absent engine power. You then lower the nose and trim it to maintain the 180 mph glide speed. You control your glide speed and rate of descent by raising or lowering the nose accordingly... i.e. too slow lower the nose a bit; too fast raise the nose a bit. Once you establish the glide ... you can easily make it to Windsor or Detroit (approx 250 miles west of Toronto). Will a B-747 glide with all engines out? You betcha!

The world's fastest glider? The space shuttle.
By the time the shuttle re-enters the Earth's atmosphere its orbital speed (18,000 mph) has decreased to approx. mach 10 (approx. 6,320 mph). At that speed you don't need any thrust. It glides to a landing without any power ...touching down at approx. 250 mph. The shuttle, like most fighter aircraft has low aspect ratio wings because its moving so fast. The shuttle certainly doesn't have anything close to the lift capability of a B-747 ... it doesn't need it. In order to the shuttle you've got to carry out a series of high nose attitude spirals to increase the drag ratio and slow the it down. By the time its on final approach its speed has been incrementally reduced to approx. 250 mph. What a ride!!!
The B-747 has huge wings and plenty of lift. You simply substitute engine thrust with gravity. Once you reach your glide speed and commence the descent ... gravity pulls you back to Earth and you control your rate of descent by adjusting the pitch ...i.e. raising or lowering the nose to maintain the speed.

Answer 9

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???

Answer 10

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.html

An amazing story!