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. We also need some information about the propulsion system, specifically, the specific fuel consumption rate of the engine. For the aircraft itself, we need to know the weight of the aircraft, the wing area, and the fuel load. We are free to select a flight altitude, but this determines the air density from our model of the atmosphere.