Aircraft deliveries

[alangla]

Following on from the Flightradar thread, there's yet another 737-800 on its delivery voyage from Seattle to Dublin (https://www.flightradar24.com/RYR800T/d6a0c0b) - given that's currently showing as being in the air for 8 hours plus, how does the aircraft manage to carry enough fuel? I thought 737s could generally only fly for 4-5 hours at a stretch. I realise this one won't have the weight of all its passengers & luggage on board, but is this enough to make the difference? I notice Jet2's deliveries seem to stop off in north east Canada before coming over the Atlantic, do theirs lack the fuel capacity to get across? Surely Ryanair aren't fitting single-use additional fuel tanks to avoid one stop?

[5150]

Remember these aircraft are being flown empty, so you can replace all that weight of passengers and luggage, with fuel. On top of that, an empty aircraft will burn less fuel if it's lighter, as well as be able to climb to a higher/more optimum altitude for performance, earlier, due to its light weight.

That's why you can get a 737 from Seattle to Dublin in one hop. Not sure about the Jet2 example - probably had a tech issue! 😬

[alangla]

I realise about being able to use the weight of the passengers for fuel, just surprised that the tank is physically big enough! Pretty sure most of Jet2's earlier deliveries stopped, but the more recent ones seem to have done Seattle - Leeds/Bradford in one go.

[Odhran]

'Cos it's Ryanair. They only fly with the bare nails of fuel anyway.

[TEKNOPUG]

They glide the last 200 miles

[djc206]

alangla said:

I realise about being able to use the weight of the passengers for fuel, just surprised that the tank is physically big enough! Pretty sure most of Jet2's earlier deliveries stopped, but the more recent ones seem to have done Seattle - Leeds/Bradford in one go.

26,000 litres according to wiki which is 21 tonnes ish. Given that Norwegian fly them from the arse end of Norway to the Canaries full of Nords and their luggage on a 6.5hr flight it's not that surprising that they can eek out an extra couple of hours without twenty tonnes of blondes and speedos onboard.

[montymoo]

3900kg in each of the wing tanks and 13000kg in the center tank.
Burning about 2400kg per hour at about a weight of 65t.

Edited by montymoo on Wednesday 17th May 20:21

[alangla]

Thanks all.

Spotted one going the other way this morning - https://www.flightradar24.com/NKS9649/d6cce8b - Spirit Air A320 from Toulouse heading across the Atlantic. Between Stornoway & Iceland just now.

[Testaburger]

As 5150 alluded to, not only are you able to replace payload (people) with fuel, but the increase in fuel burn due to increased weight is quite substantial. Nothing new to add to what's already been said, but a little snippet of info to illustrate that, which often raises an eyebrow is:

On a B777 at close to max take-off weight for a 15 hour flight, say Hong Kong - New York;

If you want to take additional fuel, the penalty (in terms of fuel burn) for each additional ton of fuel is over 500kg..

In other words, for each ton of fuel you upload, you need an additional half ton of fuel just to carry it - if you wanted it to be available to you at the other end.