From: "Jeff Shultz" 

"Richard Hong"  wrote in message
news:38ba74b9{at}w3.nls.net...
> >> 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.
>
That would be surprising, as the 727 is reputed to have the gliding
abilities of a brick (the 737 otoh, is supposedly a very nice glider).



> 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.

Yep, in Canada - actually it was a pounds to liters conversion that screwed
them up. 767.  They made a TV movie out of it.

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