Like a brick

[bellinghman]

On this day, in 1983, a Boeing 767 ran out of fuel at 26,000 feet above Canada.

The pilots then had to discover just how well a modern airliner actually can glide.

The answer was, sufficiently well that not only was nobody killed, but the plane was sufficiently undamaged that it could be repaired and fly on for another quarter century.

Comments

[sbp.livejournal.com]

That's actually pretty amazing. Well, pretty good plane design, if abysmal flight planning.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

It got a 12:1 glide ratio, which is a bit better than a paraglider can manage. On the other hand, it was going a lot faster than a paraglider can, meaning the vertical component will have been somewhat higher.

The space shuttle at best manages 4.5:1, and touches down at ~350 km/h - so its lowest possible speed is not that far below the top speed of a Bugatti Veyron. It has to flare at the right moment, and make the maximum use of the ground effect, or it will slam into the runway hard enough to break its passengers.

[fanf]

Haha another units conversion failure :-) I guess it's not so well known because nothing was expensively broken or killed.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

It's reasonably famous in aviation circles - I certainly knew about it before today's anniversary, though it wasn't one of the reasons for not flying Air Canada last year back from Vancouver to Montreal.

[captainlucy.livejournal.com]

That is a pretty good glide ratio. And more modern aircraft have even better (I think the Airbus 380 is 14:1 or thereabouts - I wonder what the Dreamliner's ratio is?)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Jebus.

Why is it you know random things about near-disaster flight scenarios?

[catness.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reminding me of one of the successes. I hadn't realized this was an anniversary. Yay! :)