Addition to my questions concerning the weight of the aircraft:?

Question

the reason for this question is this. when i look at the load

manager of a B747-400, and i press the button "full" plane, i see then the plane on which every seat and every cargo place is occupied. by additioning all this so called "payload" (passengers and cargo), i have a mass of about 84 tons. as the plane weighs about 170 tons (without the payload and fuel), and you addition the 84 tons of payload, you have then a zero fuel weight of about 264 tons. BUT: it is written that it is just allowed to have about 246 tons maximum zero fuel weight. this all means that you cannot have maximum payload, because otherwise you would be over the MFW.

However, if i would fuel the plane up with maximum fuel (about 132 tons with this weight), i would have a take-off weight of about 397 tons, which is by the way also the maximum take-off weight.

the point: maximum payload plus so much fuel that you are on max. take-off weight is OK, but the load manager would not allow max. payload.

Answer 1

go to another category De Deuce, you dont know squat about aviation, in fact looking at all of your answers, doesn't. look like you know much about anything! go away, you bother us.

I dont have any idea how to answer the question at hand

Answer 2

Not answering, but making the following observations:

170 + 84=254, not 264.

What is "MFW"? I am familiar with max ramp weight, and mtow, but have not yet encountered "mfw"? Is that one of those Microsoft psuedo-aviation terms? Do you mean ZFW? max zero fuel weight? I have never seen it as "MFW", only as "ZFW", but then I don't fly the 747-400.

Answer 3

I'm not sure what you are asking, but it sounds like the problem has to do with max zero fuel weight.  Is this a video game you are talking about?  If you actually flew a 747 and didn't know this, I would be scared!  Lol.  Max zero fuel weight is a structural limitation that keeps you from bending the main wing spar.  It's basically the maximum weight of a loaded aircraft, and any additional weight must be in the form of fuel.  Since much of the fuel goes in the wings, it balances out the weight of the payload, which is in the fuselage.  So, you can't always put maximum payload on an aircraft and then make up the difference between that weight and the max takeoff weight with fuel.  You also have to observe the max zero fuel weight.  

Don't worry if this doesn't make sense to you, it's just a video game.  I was a pilot for many years before I flew a plane that even had a max zfw.  Also, you are learning that you can't always put max payload and max fuel on any particular jet.  I had a passenger on the RJ I used to fly ask me why we couldn't take full fuel with a full passenger load.  I told him that most aircraft can't.  He said, "what about a 747?"  And, just that week I flew on a 747 overseas, and we had to make a fuel stop because of the passenger load.  

I hope this helps you a bit.

Answer 4

Its not uncommon for an aircraft to have a capacity that places it above its max ZFW.

This is basically done to give a little operational flexibility.  It is difficult to load full pax and full cargo and still stay underneath ZFW, but doing either one of the other helps the operator of the aircraft.

As to why these numbers add up to max ramp weight, I cannot guess.  It may just be a quirk of the airplane.