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Comment by Barbing

12 hours ago

And they do that with fuel?! Neat!

Yup.

On a 737 they can put about 8k pounds per wing.

Even little planes like Cessnas have wing tanks.

  • Wow wow!

    Might see planes just a smidge differently now :)

    • In sailplanes we add up to around 200 litres of water to wing tanks in single-seat gliders (empty weight typically around 280kg) to improve the high speed performance (typically up to 270 km/h these days) and ability to fly comfortably in turbulence.

      It's surprising what you can fly formation with, even without an engine [1] :-)

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0icOICQLTc

      Dumping (most of the) water before landing:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Yv-V7eozk

      [1] this particular glider does have a small engine for takeoff, but maximum speed with the engine extended is 180 km/h and here they are flying at 280 km/h.

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