Air travel is a basic part of modern transportation, but how much do you know about these planes’ incredible technology and achievements? Below, we’ll show you how incredible modern air travel is with some surprising facts about aircraft we bet you didn’t know!

Manufacturers Use More Glue Than You Think

Many of us probably imagine workers and machines riveting and hammering every part of an aircraft together, but much of a plane uses glue to ensure the pieces are secure. The fuselage and wing structure, key parts of an aircraft, mostly use adhesives instead of rivets to bind the structures.

It’s a wild thing to consider—a giant aircraft traveling at 500 mph, approximately 35,000 feet above the ground, mostly held together by glue! Of course, they don’t use the typical Elmer’s glue that we all used in elementary school. The aerospace industry uses plasma treatment machines to “activate” the surface of materials on a molecular level to make them more applicable to adhesive bonding and produce stronger connections.

They’re More Fuel Efficient Than Our Cars

We all know airplanes burn a lot of fuel, but did you know that on a per-person basis, it’s a more fuel-efficient form of travel than our cars? For larger commercial aircraft, like the Boeing 737, for example, the average consummation of gasoline during travel is about five gallons per mile.

That’s a lot of gasoline! But, when divided by the number of passengers, which is about 500, it comes out to about 100 miles per gallon per person—much more fuel efficient than a road trip.

They Can Lose an Engine

We’ve all seen a movie or TV show where a plane loses an engine, turning into an unmitigated catastrophe as the plane loses control and typically crashes. But a surprising fact about modern aircraft for many is that commercial jet planes can lose an engine without breaking a sweat.

It’s obviously still not ideal, but every commercial plane can fly safely with half of its engine power, and manufacturers rigorously test aircraft for such situations. Many planes that travel long distances must cross unoccupied and dangerous territories, such as the Arctic Circle, but if they lose an engine mid-flight, they can still fly safely for up to four or five hours without much of a difference.

They Contain Miles of Wiring

The size of modern airliners is astonishing, especially when considering the modern advancements and technology within these aircraft. Modern aircraft are practically giant flying computers, which need a lot of wiring to ensure everything works.

If you were to take the average commercial airliner, remove all the wiring, and lay it end-to-end, the wires would stretch over 100 miles. For perspective, that means there’s enough wiring in the average aircraft to start in New York City and end in Philadelphia—further for bigger, long-distance commercial planes!

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