payload capacity
Maximum load allowed
Payload capacity is the maximum weight a vehicle, aircraft, or system can carry beyond its own weight.
For trucks and spacecraft alike, it determines how much cargo, equipment, or passengers can be transported: The rocket's payload capacity is 22 tons to low Earth orbit.
The term appears in logistics, aerospace, and increasingly in discussions of electric vehicles and drones.
- cargoTransported goods
- cargo bayVehicle storage compartment
- deadweight tonnageShip's maximum cargo load
- freightGoods being transported
- fuselageAircraft's central structure
heavy lift · trucking · rocket launch · shipping · chassis · stress analysis · delivery · haulage · transport · weight distribution · semi truck · tonnage · logistics · armored vehicles · carrying · aircraft · forklift · launch
payload capacityempty weight
Mass without load
tare weight · curb weight · dead weight · overload · weight limit
payload capacityfuel efficiency
Output per unit burned
fuel economy · lightweighting · range · dead load · speed