Aircraft Weight & Balance Practice Test

Basic Empty Weight is the aircraft’s weight with all permanently installed items in place, including fixed equipment and fixed ballast, but without any usable fuel or payload. Those permanent items form the baseline so that weight and balance calculations can start from a consistent reference point.

This weight excludes what changes from flight to flight—namely usable fuel and the payload (crew, passengers, and cargo). You add payload to BEW to get the Zero Fuel Weight, and you then add usable fuel to reach the ramp or takeoff weight, within limits.

So the description that BEW includes fixed equipment and fixed ballast and excludes usable fuel, crew, passengers, and cargo matches the concept. The other ideas—like including usable fuel or payload, or equating BEW with zero fuel weight—don’t fit how BEW is defined and used in weight–and–balance calculations.