An interactive Java applet which demonstrates the information found on this slide is also available. This applet presents problems which you must solve by using the range equation. On this page we summarize the information necessary to do a preliminary calculation of an aircraft's range under cruise conditions. On this page, we are taking a very simple view of aircraft range - for academic purposes. In reality, calculating the range is a complex problem because of the large number of variables.
Extra fuel is expended in climbing to altitude and in maneuvering the aircraft.
On real aircraft, just like with your automobile, there is usually a fuel reserve and the pilot makes sure to land the plane with fuel still on board. We are going to neglect all of these effects. There are certain things that we need to know about our aircraft. Using the lift equation we can solve for the velocity necessary to create enough lift to equal the weight. This flight time multiplied by the aircraft velocity determines the range.