[B]ut whether it’s a two-seater or a 747, any airplane is able to glide successfully sans power. Even the heaviest jetliners glide routinely during so-called idle thrust descents, and believe it or not, the glide ratio of a large jet — altitude lost to horizontal distance traveled — is usually better than that of your average private model (the one caveat being that it must accomplish this descent at a considerably higher speed).
Ask the pilot from Salon.
Above first posted here three years ago, and a fact I still find fascinating.