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### How does aircraft weight affect the glide performance? [duplicate]

Since the L/D ratio remains unaffected by the aircraft weight, will there be any effect to the gliding range?
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### Why does increasing a glider's weight using water ballast improve its speed and performance? [duplicate]

I was studying gliders and how they fly. There is a point that's not clear to me: why does using water ballast improve the performance/speed of a glider? If I understand correctly, my glider jumps ...
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### How far can airplanes glide?

On an another question, an answer said: You don't need an engine to fly as airplanes are designed to glide without it. I suspect this heavily depends on the type of the aircraft, so lets assume we ...
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### Why are heavy flaps better than just a bigger wing?

Flaps increase lift during landing and T/O. But when retracted, they do nothing. The space needed to stow the common fowler flaps can't be used for anything else - fuel or structure. Extended flaps ...
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### What determines the best glide speed?

I found the best glide speed of cessna 152 is 60 kts. My question is why it is not more or less than 60 kts? What are the factors upon which the best gliding speed is determined?
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### What is the weight that is used to balance an aircraft called?

I remember I was reading about balancing an airplane a few days ago, and i came across a type of weight that is added to balance the airplane. But, I do not remember what it was called. Also could ...
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### Why does an airliner have a shallow descent when heavier, opposite to gliders with ballast?

Gliders utilize water ballast to, among other things, descend faster: But sometimes you need to get down fast: This is when water ballast is added. In airliners however, the heavier the plane, the ...
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### How are the glide polar and L/D ratio charts related?

We know from other questions and answers that airplanes and gliders in particular can have their performance described in terms of glide polar and Lift-to-Drag ratio. As it appears from the images in ...
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### Is (L/D)max achieved at a specific speed or AOA?

I'm little bit confused about the (L/D)max. So I've read this blog: https://joeclarksblog.com/?p=4155 and the author shows this graph: So if I understand it ...
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### What does this statement about steep descent mean?

Source: Wolfgang Langewiesche - Stick and Rudder; An Explanation of the Art of Flying In the first chapter the author mentions, in a glide, if you want to descend more steeply, you want to want to ...
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### How does retracting flaps help extend the glide of an aircraft?

As per the video from Smithsonian channel BA flight 38's captain retracted the flaps of the Boeing 777 by 5 degrees to extend glide, to travel further. Why?
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### Does lift-to-drag vary with anything beyond geometry?

The basic equations for both lift and drag show dependency on $v^2$, air density and some constants. At a glance, Lift to Drag ratio should depend on nothing else than plane geometry. Although I ...
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### Could the wing struts on the SUGARVolt cause problems?

On Boeing's concept aircraft, the SUGARVolt, there are wing struts connecting the fuselage and the wings, which is for making sure that the wings do not bend too much during flight. Could the wing ...