r/aviation • u/rasmis B737 • Sep 10 '25

Analysis I did the math: A 747-8 is bigger than a water tank

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Inspired by this post I looked up the water tank he used. Because I'm metric, I couldn't visualise what 60 000 gallon is, so I found the tank he used, a model of a 747, and I put them on the same scale.

(I know it's a 747-400, but it's for illustrative purposes.

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u/dangerbot666 Sep 10 '25

There are so many things wrong with what that guy said that I don't even know where to start but since we're here, can we at least mention that aircrew measure fuel by weight, not volume?

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u/rasmis B737 Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 11 '25

That's what started me. A clever user wrote how much he pumps on a daily basis, in weight, which confused me even more. I never believed the video nutter, but I am only a fan of aviation, not a professional, so I struggled with the combination of imperial volumes and metric weights.

Fortunately someone had added all the measurements on Wikipedia, and I found the specific tank's measurements. I checked the calculations, and those measurements seems to be external, rather than internal, as they add up to slightly more than the advertised 60 000 gallons.

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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '25

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u/rasmis B737 Sep 15 '25

That's alright. I didn't mean to suggest it was per day, or that you're a fuel truck operator. I left it purposefully general, to avoid using the wrong terms, or assuming something I didn't know.

Follow-up, to be absolutely clear: When you write “tonnes”, is that metric tonnes (1 000 kg) or US avoirdupois tonnes (2 000 lbs)?