How long to the moon by jumbo jet?

Answer 1

The moon is 384,403 km from the Earth. A Boeing 747-400 has a long range cruising speed of 907kph so the simple answer is about 424 hours or 17 days and 16 hours. Of course there are a few problems: # A jumbo jet can not fly straight up near the surface of the Earth and even when you get to the moon the Earth's gravity is still about 0.3% of that on the surface of the Earth which will slow the jumbo down. # A jet engine needs air so it stops in space. # There is no air resistance so less fuel is consumed but on the other hand there is no air to provide lift so the wings are pretty useless. # If we ignore the first 3 problems there remains the problem that a jet can not carry enough fuel. The maximum range of a 747-400-ER is 14,205km so it would need to land and refuel 28 times on the way, a lot of new airports to build...... More seriously, comparing a jumbo jet with a the real vehicle used to get people to the moon, the Saturn V rocket used by NASA for moon missions we see just how short of fuel and thrust a jumbo is for the job.

* Fuel - The Saturn V had a take off weight of 3,038,500kg to deliver just 47,000kg to Lunar orbit, less than 2% of takeoff weight and most of its take off weight was fuel. A 747-400 has a maximum fuel load of just 47% of minimum takeoff weight. * Thrust - The first stage of the Saturn V had a thrust of 7,648,000 lbf, a 747-400 with the best engines has a max thrust of only 63,300 lbf, just 0.8%. So, 17 days and 16 hours is kind of useful to picture how far away the moon is but a jumbo is never going to fly to the moon.

Answer 2

It would take approximately 18 days to travel to the moon by jumbo jet, assuming the jet could fly nonstop at its maximum cruising speed. However, jumbo jets are not capable of flying to the moon due to the vast distance and lack of fuel efficiency for such a journey.