"ShawnD2112" wrote in message news
And remember that glide performance has nothing to do with weight but to do
with wing design. And, if I remember correctly, a 747 or like glides just
about like a 172 does, it just needs a faster airspeed to do it, but does it
at the same kind of angle.

Actually, it is a function of the lift and drag. While wing design figures into,
the lack of things sticking out of the fuselage like landing gear, big (compared
to the size of the aircraft) antennas, and an overall more streamlined shape
than Jay's Piper yields much less parasitic drag.