On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 at 20:51:11 in message
, Kyle Boatright
wrote:

What fuel problem would cause a jet to go down *right now*? Airliners glide
decently and a crew with even a little training would get off a mayday call
and try and work the situation in the time it would take a flamed-out
airliner to go down. A back of the envelope figure is that an airliner
probably has a sink rate of 2500 fpm or less in glider mode... Remember the
Gimli Glider? It glided for 10-15 minutes before landing, and a Soviet
airliner probably wouldn't do much worse...

More recently wasn't there an Airbus (I forget which type) that lost
fuel over the Atlantic and glided some 70 nm(?) to the Azores and had
enough height left for a circuit before landing? Modern airliners are
efficient partly because they have very good Lift/Drag ratios.

I agree that the sink rate is around 2000 ft/min or so but it is
Lift/drag that gives you the distance. I guess that airliners cruise
around 250 knots IAS and that that is near the optimum Lift/Drag ratio
point.
--
David CL Francis