How much does an airplane weighs?

Answer 1

Every airplane type has a different weight.

Early heavier-than-air machines weighed just a few hundred pounds. In the early days of ultralights, the general agreement among enthusiasts was that the maximum empty weight of an ultralight was to be 150 pounds.

A Cessna Turbo Skylane's "typically equipped empty weight"--no fuel, no payload--is 2082 lbs; Takeoff weight--the maximum this plane can weigh in flight--is 3100 lbs. They figure that by the time you do all your checks and taxi out to the runway, you'll have burned off a couple gallons of fuel.

Pilatus' PC-12 is a very popular business turboprop. Its typically equipped empty weight is 6557 lbs; its takeoff weight is 10,450 lbs. A PC-12 has a LOT more power than a Cessna; Cessnas turn the prop with a little over 200hp, while PC-12s use 1200hp engines.

A Boeing 737-800 has a maximum takeoff weight of 187,700lbs. They don't give the typically equipped empty weight on those because no two of those planes are alike. If ABC Air offers "all business class service" and DEF Air offers "great rates to vacation destinations" because the whole plane is coach class using smaller seats and more of them, ABC Air's planes and DEF Air's planes will have different weights...and if GHI Air is a cargo carrier who has no seats on his plane at all, their planes will weigh something radically different from the first two airlines' jets.

Now if you REALLY want to get wild and crazy, Antonov Air's An-225 Mriyas (they have one and are working on a second) weigh 1.32 million lbs at maximum takeoff weight. They don't use this plane much; it's so expensive to fly it, it's actually cheaper to fly the load in two An-124s than to use one An-225!

Get ready for takeoff!

Answer 2

Aircraft have varied weights from about 800 pounds right up to 1,200,000 pounds.