Originally Posted by
AfricanSkies
With no fuel in the wings, certain aircraft can only take so much weight on the gear. Once the wings are fuelled, they provide a balance to the central fuselage mass, in effect lifting it, with the gear being the pivot, and the total load on all the gear is less. Sounds strange but once the wings are fuelled, more payload may be loaded. MZFW is a structural limit.
Why make it simple when it can be complicated ?!!
MZFW is a SUM of maximum payload added to aircraft that has or has not any fuel.
Period.
How will you load the fuel is another subject,
that can limit Max Fuel if wings are not full, but will not limit the MZFW.