Airplane fuel gauges are somewhat similar to vehicle fuel gauges in that they both indicate the quantity of usable fuel present in the fuel tank. However, airplane fuel gauges work at a more complex level simply because aircraft carry more than one fuel tank and they also have more than one engine. Besides, reading fuel levels becomes complicated due to the fluctuating fuel density resulting from the changing aircraft altitudes.

To explain the workings of an airplane fuel gauge in a simplistic manner: a float level gauge is fitted to each of the fuel tanks in the aircraft. These gauges feed the information pertaining to fuel level in each tank ... Read more »