From: "Richard Hong" 

>> How far will a 747 glide from 6 miles up?

Paul,

I'm not sure about the 747, but some of the other commercial jets have a
"glide ratio" of about 10:1 - 12:1.  Surprisingly, a pilot friend
once told me that the glide ratio of a 727 is greater than that of a small
Cessna.

Of course, a lot of it also depends on the skill of the pilot and whether
he can get to the airport with relatively few turns.  Plus, you have to
know how to bleed altitude so you don't fly past the airport (and if you
bleed too much, you're toast.)

About 20 years ago there was an incident (I think in Canada?) where the
pilot landed the plane by gliding it.  This was the famous one where the
plane ran out of gas because the fuel was added as liters rather than
gallons (oops!)  The weird bit of luck in that case was that the pilot flew
gliders as a hobby, and the co-pilot knew about an abandoned military
airfield in the area.  That combination of knowledge saved their lives.

Rich

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