Why is weight important in aircraft?

Weight is a major factor in aircraft construction and operation and demands respect from all pilots. The force of gravity continuously attempts to pull an aircraft down toward Earth. The force of lift is the only force that counteracts weight and sustains an aircraft in flight.



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Weight affects the balance point of the aircraft. This is one of the most important points of an airplane because it directly impacts the stability and performance of the aircraft.

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Weight Changes If a pilot lowers airplane weight by reducing fuel, the resulting decrease in the range of the airplane must be taken into consideration during flight planning. During flight, fuel burn is normally the only weight change that takes place.

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Operating over weight will cause the aircraft to not meet the climb rates published in POH/AFM data, require longer runway distance for takeoff, lessen single-engine performance in a multi-engine aircraft, reduce glide distance in an emergency, and contribute to poor stablity if a stall is encountered, potentially ...

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A nice rule of thumb for most light aircraft is that a 10% increase in take-off weight will result in a 5% increase in take-off speed, at least a 9% decrease in acceleration, and at least a 21% increase in take-off distance (1).

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The weight of the passengers, crew, and their carry-on luggage is mostly unknown. They set the maximum weight on the luggage so that even if the passengers on board are unusually heavy, there is still enough of a buffer that the aircraft does not exceed the MTOW.

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However, a 2019 advisory from the FAA said airlines can weigh passengers, according to CNBC. “It allows us to have actual accurate and current, up-to-date weights for our particular flight,” Captain Laura Einsetler, a commercial airline pilot with more than 30 years of aviation experience, told NewsNation.

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Weight drives how much fuel an aircraft needs for a flight and in some circumstances such as long distance or high altitude airports, passengers and/or cargo must be offloaded so that sufficient fuel can be carried for the flight or the aircraft is able to successfully take off within the limitations of the airfield.

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Kind of. If you load an aircraft more, it needs, from it's wings, more lift force to balance the now greater force of gravity pulling it down. That larger lift force can be obtained in three ways. By increasing the airspeed, by increasing the angle of attack, by changing the wing geometry.

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