How far can an Airbus A320 Glide?

The glide ratio of a clean A320 is 17:1 which means it can travel 17 units of distance forwards for every 1 unit of distance downward at best glide speed. Using your figure of 11,000 meters away and multiplying by 17 results in a maximum range of 187km .



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The A380 has a glide ratio of about 15:1, which means that for every 15 kilometers (9 miles) it travels horizontally, it loses 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) of altitude. Therefore, if an A380 is cruising at 12 kilometers (7 miles) above sea level, it can glide for about 180 kilometers (110 miles) before reaching the ground.

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Flight 236 glided for nearly 75 miles. After gliding for nearly 75 miles or 121 kilometres, the plane touched down hard in Lajes, around 1,030 feet (310 m) past the runway threshold of runway 33, at a speed of around 200 knots at 06:45 UTC.

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For example, with a glide ratio of 15:1, a Boeing 747-200 can glide for 150 kilometres (93 mi; 81 nmi) from a cruising altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 ft).

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That means at 35,000 feet it could travel about 100 miles. The new 787 Dreamliner is around 20:1.

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Assuming that a Boeing 737-300 has a glide ratio of 17:1 then if at 30,000 AGL it can glide about 96 miles under perfect conditions.

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Without engine thrust, a 747-200 has a glide ratio of roughly 15:1, meaning it can glide forward 15 kilometres for every kilometre it drops. The flight crew quickly determined that the aircraft was capable of gliding for 23 minutes and covering 91 nautical miles (169 km) from its flight level of 37,000 feet (11,000 m).

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Can a plane fly if all its engines have failed? A passenger aircraft will glide perfectly well even if all its engines have failed, it won't simply fall out the sky. Infact it can fly for around 60 miles if it loses its engines at a typical cruise altitude of 36,000ft.

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Techincally, there is only one way for the aircraft to remain hanging motionless in the air: if weight and lift cancel each other out perfectly, and at the same time thrust and drag cancel each other out too. But this is incredibly rare. To stay in the air and sustain its flight, an aircraft needs to be moving forward.

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Maximum and minimum glideslope angles are 3.25 degrees and 2.5 degrees respectively.

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All fixed-wing aircraft have some capability to glide with no engine power; that is, they do not fall straight down like a stone, but rather continue to glide moving horizontally while descending.

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