Do airplanes consume more fuel on liftoff when it is raining?
Do airplanes consume more fuel on liftoff when it is raining?
I think that the additional weight on the water on the surface of the outer airplane body increases friction with the air, and also weight of the aircraft. But does the fuel consumption increase? And by how much?
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If you consider the fuselage a cylinder and calculate the surface area of the lateral surface it’s 2pir*h. this site has the length as 209.08ft and the diameter as 20.3. That means the fuselage surface area is about 13300ft^2. That same site lists the wing surface area as 4605ft^2, for a total of 17905 square. Assuming an 1/8” of water accumulates uniformly, which is a bad assumption, that’s 2238 cubic feet of water. Each cubic foot weighs about 62 pounds, so that much water weighs 136000 pounds. The normal takeoff weight of a 777 is 534000 pounds, yeah that is a lot. However, only about half the surface area is exposed to rain and 1/8 inch is a lot. Id imagine it’s less than half that weight.
Thats like 2.5 times the weight of fuel when full. Math is bad
It’s the upper bound of a plane fully covered with an eighth inch of water. Reading is hard.
Youre probably the same kind of student I was. Shows that you know how to do the work, but don't care enough to actually find the right answer
Hell yes lol nailed it. I feel seen
I'm even worse at math than either of you, what's bad here?
I appreciate this answer. The other posts showing the math are still cool, but in theory I could do it myself.
You highlighted shit that wouldn't occur to me.