How far can airplane glide?

[@samborlon]

Please make a video explaining the effect of weight in glide performance. I know the answer that greater weight will not affect the gliding distance and only shortens gliding time, but I don't know the reason nor can I visualize it. Thank you so much for all your awesome videos.

[@Uncommon_Sense01]

Yes, please do! I also have trouble visualising it even though i know the answer.

[@RulgertGhostalker]

that's the answer i was looking for, so weight does not affect glide distance at all? and more weight just increases the airspeed? she said " less weight = less lift" and more weight = more lift , where lift is drag then less weight=less lift=less drag....but it's the weight component driving the forward motion so weight wouldn't make any speed difference.....so i don't see how more weight makes any speed difference unless it negatively effected the glide ratio. she did not say, more lift=more drag...but it does, right? .... i mean my brain is going to fry if someone tries to tell me it doesn't.. oh wait, the increase in lift is coming from an increase in speed, not angle of attack....but drag increases with speed, so the same, but it's going faster ??? she said " should the angle of attack decrease, the angle of attack will decrease, ect. ect. and the glide rage will be Shorter....that means it's going faster, not further.... i know the last bit there is disjointed from the weight topic, but that's how i see weight effecting the physics, so until someone can explain to me otherwise, then *more weight = more speed but less distance covered.*

[@RulgertGhostalker]

for crips sake dude, don't say "i know" if you don't ....i am trying to learn this stuff.

[@RulgertGhostalker]

HAH I GOT IT , JUST THINKING ...the Apparent Wind Shifts, The Angle Of Attack Stays The Same....i am right, more weight = more speed, but less distance covered.

[@RulgertGhostalker]

Or, "best glide speed" gives different angles of attack which correspond to different air frame glide ratios ? "best glide speed seems more instance specific", like 4 degree IS NOT the same optimum angle of attack for both the glider and the space shuttle. i am not even a pilot of anything, and this is my first video studying the subject ... and the comments have me immersed in glider pilot cliches that don't correlate to the physics.

[@prithvishnarvekar2866]

L/D max is independent of weight if aircraft is flown at optimum AOA, the glide angle and distance will be the same but optimum AOA is attained at Vmd(min drag speed) which changes with weight. Vmd is directly proportional to weight. Any increase in weight will increase Vmd i.e a/c will accelerate at a higher Vmd(than before) which will increase lift,drag and forward weight component. Hence, aircraft will maintain it's optimum AOA (L/D max) but at a greater IAS

[@RulgertGhostalker]

as per Newtonian Physics, a bowling ball and a feather will fall at the same rate in a vacuum....but a vacuum is not where gliders function.

[@RulgertGhostalker]

or the change in Vmd would be due to a change in apparent, effecting L/D.....explain how i am wrong.

[@RulgertGhostalker]

and i understand the heavier glider would be traveling faster....more lift is more drag, but more speed is more lift And drag

[@RulgertGhostalker]

in other words, same gliders, with and without water.....the one without water would be more efficient, and that's L/D

[@RulgertGhostalker]

i mean someone correct me if i am wrong....but i can't find a way out of the shift in apparent there.....it's a very minute shift, basically having to do with the divergence in efficiency.

[@olga_multilingo]

Thank you for this video. Brilliant explanation, as always!

[@flightclubonline]

Glad you liked it!

[@argydimitrelis611]

You are the best channel on youtube. Short videos with huge knowledge sharing. Congratulations.

[@flightclubonline]

Wow, thanks!

[@Northstar_004]

Increase in weight doesn't change glide performance in still air while flying at the correct minimum drag speed.

[@Michallote]

It totally does, more weight requires more lift and thus more drag. If the glider is the externally the same but has more mass, then to generate the same amount of lift it must go faster, as the only way to generate more lift at the same angle of attack and roughly the same coefficient of lift is increasing speed. But that does not hold up nicely for wide ranges of mass variation as essentially for flying faster you are changing the Reynolds number at which your aircraft is operating, your glider would very likely stall at the wingtips earlier if you decide to go faster, worsening even further performance.

[@crashtestpilot1]

I have heard this many times about loading versus glide ratio but don't understand why it is. Higher wing loading glides faster. While potential energy increases linearly with weight, air resistance is exponentially affected by speed. I would love a good explination as to why glide ratio is not affected with linear increase in push versus exponential increase in air resistance. Thanks in advance!

[@Dogfight2000]

@@Michallote Wrong. Weight does not change the distance. However, the heavier aircraft will descent at faster speed compared to lighter airplane. But distance will remain the same. The only thing that change is the time but not the distance

[@kk-zt9ri]

謝謝！

[@flightclubonline]

Thank you very much!

[@kk-zt9ri]

@@flightclubonline I come from Taiwan, I have never seem such good education channel, I will try to learn more from you, thanks of you Mister.

[@brobeans6921]

Please do a video about aerodynamic balance... I'm stuck in the middle of it And to answer your question, a heavier airplane has to glide at a faster speed since the drag curve has moved up and to the right and thus an increase in Vmd. If the heavier airplane remains at Vmd, it has the same L/D ratio and same glide angle and range.

[@flightclubonline]

Excellent idea for aerodynamic balance! Thank you.

[@saurabh7597]

Weight has no effect on glide performance. More weight will simply lead to higher Rate of descent. 👍

[@LLH7202]

and thus greater forward speed--which is why competition sailplanes use water ballast.

[@dantoylamb1136]

It does not affect glide range but will arrive earlier than the lighter airplane. But how can pilots maintain best glide airspeed for heavier aircraft when they glide at a FASTER airspeed while still having the same glide distance? How can they tell they are maintaining the best angle of descent? Please make a video on this. This is my whole reason why I was watching the video. thank you so much!

[@sadiqemad2845]

perfect explanation

[@flightclubonline]

Glad you liked it

[@karaebdi8337]

hi Please share more videos in a shorter period of time

[@ilyaazvandyk4148]

Weight has no effect on angle of decent. Vmd will still result in max glide range. Weight does have an effect on the rate of decent. As the weight increases, so does the decent rate, therefore less glide endurance.

[@zkr2133]

Jut like you need more power at heavier weights to maintain lift, you need a higher airspeed when gliding :)

[@piquecuriosity]

I wonder that if we have less lift when we climb then how can we show it in the lift formula? Because Lift= 0.5 r. V^2 . Cl. S. So, if our speed is increased as you say and Aoa will increase too as we pitch up then Lift should be increased in the formula. Is there any idea how we should think of it?

[@captmulch1]

At a higher weight the glide angle is the same - speed needs to increase though to get the same glide angle.

[@pete9364]

If you keep that same glide speed then weight will affect the glide distance. IF you slightly modify the gliding speed, (only few kts) then the gliding range will stay the same.

[@RulgertGhostalker]

Consolidated: i am not a pilot, i am a design engineer exploring aircraft....and the answer to her question, at the end of the video is " IT DEPENDS" in more rigid winged aircraft, an increase in weight results in a Decrease in glide ratio. alternately, concerning water weight in sailplanes ( gliders ), where the high profile wings are longer and thinner, and so are more flexible...there, the water weight cantilevers the lift forces out to the wing tips , and into the fuselage; this "wing loading" weight, giving the sailplane more inertia on launch, but also Flattening The Wings, therefore compensating the glide ratio with increased lift. ( sometimes actually resulting in an increase in glide ratio )

[@cpvortex1014]

thanks youuuuuuuuuuuu

[@RulgertGhostalker]

Consolidated: i am not a pilot, i am a design engineer exploring aircraft....and the answer to her question, at the end of the video is " IT DEPENDS" in more rigid winged aircraft, an increase in weight results in a Decrease in glide ratio. alternately, concerning water weight in sailplanes ( gliders ), where the high profile wings are longer and thinner, and so are more flexible...there, the water weight cantilevers the lift forces out to the wing tips , and into the fuselage; this "wing loading" weight, giving the sailplane more inertia on launch, but also Flattening The Wings, therefore compensating the glide ratio with increased lift. ( sometimes actually resulting in an increase in glide ratio )

[@sonalisharma8162]

The heavier airplane gliding at high airspeed will take less time.

[@allsizons5228]

Weight increases higher rate of descend, angle of attack drops down and glide range reduces.

[@airwalk247]

I thought that weight/mass acted towards the center of the earth due to gravity. Unless you're a star trek shuttlecraft or a UFO, it seems counter intuitive to say theres a forward component of weight. Rather you could consider that it is the momentum of the aircraft from its mass/weight contributing to the forward unchanged momentum. While a heavier aircraft will generally have a higher best L/D speed, that does not infer that weight is doing that but instead is a force that needs to be countered by the increased speed of the aircraft. There should actually be a forward component of lift instead of weight. Think of the much lighter sailplane vs airliner. Both rely on the same aerodynamic forces on the aircraft despite their different mass/weight. Weight does not act in the forward component for either aircraft, instead we need airspeed to obtain lift to counter weight and drag (without thrust we need to pitch the nose down to create airspeed to create airflow over the wing to create lift). Lift acts perpendicular to the relative airflow and since we are now pitched forward for glide the lift component has a slight "forward component of lift", this is what is 'lifting' or propelling us in the horizontal, while the vertical component of lift is not enough for us to maintain altitude against a higher weight component, it is enough to slow our descent into a glide assuming we fly at the aircraft's best L/D speed. If that speed is 450 knots or 65 kts or 50 kts is all dependant on the aerodynamic properties of the aircraft and the speeds determined in testing the aircraft.

[@refness3108]

If we are heavier we would need more life to maintain straight and level flight for that we would need to increase our AOA which will increase the Induced Drag resulting in less glide range!

[@Rohit-hk6nd]

What about inertia

[@RulgertGhostalker]

4 degrees is the optimum angle of attack then on both the glider and the space shuttle ??? LOL , that can't be right. what i mean is, more weight = lower glide ratio, but more speed .... or more weight, in the same air-frame, would put that specific wing's optimum angle of attack on a steeper apparent. or to say, "best glide speed" seems to me to be " as based on averages" ...because each wing profile has an optimum angle of attack. ( i know airfoils from other topic studies ( yacht design )

[@mamatuja]

Center of lift and center of gravity should be included in this video

[@kdr955]

There’s not one video on youtube that gets this right.

[@kjymma]

The heavier airplane gliding at high airspeed at the same angle of descent

[@reeeyan5926]

There will be no change in gliding performance

[@anubhavbhadani1624]

ans to last question Increased Descent Rate: A heavier aircraft will experience a higher rate of descent during a glide because there is more mass to pull down due to gravity. This results in a steeper glide path and reduced horizontal distance covered. Reduced Glide Ratio: Glide performance is often measured by the glide ratio, which is the ratio of horizontal distance traveled to the altitude lost. A heavier aircraft will have a reduced glide ratio because it descends more rapidly for a given altitude loss. Shorter Glide Range: With a lower glide ratio and steeper descent, a heavier aircraft will cover a shorter horizontal distance during a glide. This can be critical in emergency situations where an extended glide is needed to reach a safe landing area.

[@azzydog]

not a great way of engaging with your community and enforcing comments. I don't want to comment on things I don't know, but want to learn. Please explain instead of "comment down below"

[@Pure_Aviation361]

Glide path will be shorter