Definition
The weight of the airframe, engines, all permanently installed equipment, and unusable fuel. Depending on the manufacturer's standard, empty weight may also include full operating fluids such as engine oil, hydraulic fluid, and engine coolant. It does not include the pilot, passengers, baggage, or usable fuel.
Plain English
What the airplane itself weighs when it is sitting on the ramp with nothing loaded into it -- no people, no bags, and no usable fuel. Just the aircraft and the things permanently attached to or built into it.
Context Anchor
Seen in weight-and-balance calculations, the aircraft’s current weight-and-balance record, and the loading section of the Pilot’s Operating Handbook.
Why Pilots Care
It forms the starting point for calculating how much fuel, passengers, and cargo the aircraft can safely carry without exceeding maximum takeoff weight or center of gravity limits.
Intuition Check
Empty does not mean the airplane is stripped bare or contains nothing. It means the aircraft’s recorded starting weight before adding the flight’s load.
Example Sentence 1
Before loading passengers and bags, the pilot looked up the empty weight of the aircraft on the weight and balance sheet in the POH.
Example Sentence 2
Knowing the empty weight helped the crew determine the maximum payload available for the trip.