[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

Please people, stay safe if you're travelling on a 777 soon - they have difficulty staying airborne with no fuel!

CNN's aviation experts don't say if this affects any other aircraft, Boeing or otherwise. Phew.

No more than any other airliner. Actually I found the 17:1 glide ratio of the 747 by googling. I couldn't find anything for the 777, but in general, jet wings are designed in such a way that the glide ratios for these aircraft are broadly the same. A clean 727-200 has a glide ratio of 15-17:1. A clean MD-80 has a glide ratio of 28:1. A clean 747-200 has a glide ratio of 17:1 as well. The glide ratio of 17:1 means that for every 17 units the aircraft travels forward, it loses 1 unit of height. So if it's cruising at 40,000', it will travel (40000 feet x 17 feet = 680,000 feet) = 111.914 nautical miles using google convert. So that gives us a longest possible glide from 40,000 feet. In practice, these glides are actually worse because pilots are busy, stressed, and are initially guessing at glide speeds and angles. I know the glide ratio for the Cessna 172 I fly is 9:1; which is for every 1,000 feet of altitude I will cover about 9,000 feet which is 1.7 miles. Let's say a 737 has a glide ratio of almost double 9:1 like 17:1, if it's 10,000 feet in the air and 32 miles away from LAX, it will actually glide right onto a runway, Having practiced nighttime dead stick- no electronics landings at San Jose(Norm Mineta Int'l Airport) myself, in my 'wild youth' with a miserable 9:1 glide ratio, The superior handling of a 777 at 17:1 really makes the concern a non-issue IMHO. GOLDENRIVET is the better go-to on this sort of thing IMHO but I'm not far off the mark.