Why cant commercial jets land with a full fuel tank?

-I have read several articles talking about how planes had to turn back and land after some distress midflight, and the pilots had to dump fuel first before landing. why is this?They can land with full tanks, but they are so heavy when filled with fuel that there's a possibility of overstressing parts of the aircraft during landing if they land with all that fuel on board.



It's possible to design airplanes so that they can land with a full fuel load (small airplanes are routinely designed this way), but it makes the airplane heavier because it needs greater strength. The assumption with airliner designs is that the airliner will never land without having burned most of its fuel, so there's no need to provide for landing with a full fuel load. And for normal flights, that's always true. But sometimes an airplane has to land early, without first burning most of its fuel, and in some cases it may be heavy enough to risk being damaged on landing.



If an airliner lands with full fuel, it's not necessarily a big deal. However, it will have to be carefully inspected to see if anything has been overstressed.



Another reason not to land with lots of fuel is that it reduces the risk of fire, especially in an emergency landing. But the main reason is that airliners are deliberately designed under the assumption that they'll always land with only a relatively small amount of fuel in the tanks. The fuel load is calculated to be enough for the flight plus a safety margin before departure, so airplanes never land with full tanks in normal service.They absolutely 100% can. Every aircraft certified for passenger operation can safely land at its maximum permitted takeoff weight. Otherwise, a problem that required an immediate landing right after takeoff would cause unacceptable risk. At worst, additional inspections may be required after the landing or a few tires might get damaged.



Fuel is dumped at the discretion of the pilot where it increases safety. A lower landing weight means a lower landing speed and a shorter braking distance.



Note that this is not the case for military aircraft. They may be required to dump fuel or even ordinance (if dumping fuel is too slow) if a bomber full of fuel and bombs must immediately land after takeoff.
Actually, all airplanes can land with full tanks (at maximum takeoff weight) -

They are tested to land at these weights, but it could mean some damage -

Then it will require an "overweight landing" maintenance inspection -

Airlines prefer to "dump" fuel to reduce the weight to maximum landing weight -



I once had to land a DC8-73F cargo near maximum takeoff weight -

We had problem with the airplane landing gear (not staying up) -

So we called the airline operations department to ask what to do -

Land as is, or dump fuel (we were over Germany)...? -



They said "save the fuel, land as is, overweight, not problem" -

So... we landed - airplane got inspected (gear problem repaired) -
Airplanes can take off with a full load of fuel and cargo/passengers since it is expected that the airplane will burn off excess weight before arriving at their scheduled destination. If it's necessary for the plane to land short of the final destination, it may be too heavy to land with the extra weight and will have to dump fuel to get down to the approved landing weight.
Weight.



The Maximum Landing Weight (MLW) is the maximum aircraft gross weight due to design or operational limitations at which an aircraft is permitted to land.



Where aircraft overweight landing is permitted, a structural inspection or evaluation of the touch-down loads before the next aircraft operation will be required.
You can't land with takeoff weight because it can cause damage to the aircraft. (Landing Gear can catch fire and tires may blow.) Another problem is not stopping in time. You would need at least 7,000 feet of runway to stop with full braking power for a Boeing 777.
That's what she said