Why commercial planes cant reach 70 000 feet altitude ?
The U-2 has a type of wing whose shape is called high aspect ratio. That means it's a lot longer than it is wide. It's able to generate high coefficient of lift values over the range of drag values it produces. In layman's terms that means in order to take advantage of the very thin air at 70,000 feet, the wing needs to maximize what little air there is so that the airplane can still fly. Look at other aircraft with high AR wings, like the B-52, or a sailplane. High AR wings also improve aircraft stability, and reduce fuel consumption. A 787 with it's "medium" aspect ratio wing would simply refuse to climb much past 45,000 feet, and if you abruptly tried, you would surely stall the airplane. Why don't commercial jets use higher aspect wings? Because the trade-off is extra weight, reduced fuel capacity (fuel is held in the wings), and the airplane taking up more space at an airport. Those factors alone make it too costly and too impractical to have to build, buy, and operate.
What does the Earth look like at 1,000,000 feet altitude compared to 100,000 feet?
100,000 feet (well, nearly 130,000 actually) http://metronewsca.files.wordpress.com/2... 1,000,000 feet (well, actually around 1,380,000 feet, 260 miles, ISS orbit) http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocu...
Why do airplanes fly at such high altitudes?
Airplanes use less fuel at high altitude than they use at low altitude, because the air is thinner at high altitudes and therefore produces less air resistance to slow the airplane down. In addition, flying high keeps an airplane above most of the weather and turbulence. The distance is essentially the same whether the flight is at a high altitude or a low altitude. The most fuel-efficient flight is at low speed and maximum altitude. However, for practical reasons, airliners typically fly closer to their maximum speed than to their minimum speed, and they don't quite fly at their maximum altitudes.
What is the altitude in feet?
You are flying a kite on a line that is 350 feet long. Let's suppose the line is perfectly straight (it never really is) and it makes an angle of 65 degrees with the horizontal direction.
How come airplanes can't get to mount everest?
k. so i just learned that an airplane's cruising altitude is 30 to 35 thousand. and mount everest is 29,028 feet. well.. why can't airplanes get to mount everest's death zone? (i used to read about mount everest a lot. and i was always told.. once you get to the camp c, the death zone, that you couldn't get back down on an airplane.) if an airplane can fly up there. why can't it get to everest?
Why can't small propeller driven aircraft fly at high altitude?
Internal combustion engines are just like people. They need oxygen to breathe. At higher altitudes, the air gets thin and there's just not enough oxygen to support combustion. Jets and turbine engines use compressors to draw in huge amounts of thin air to provide enough oxygen to burn, but small piston engines just don't have that capacity. Superchargers and turbochargers can help up to a certain level, but eventually, even they will run out of air and the engine just won't be able to produce enough power to allow the plane to climb any higher.
Why can't planes fly above turbulence? Didn't the Concorde fly at altitudes where turbulence wasn't an issue?
The Concorde, with a service ceiling of 60,000 feet, did have significantly less turbulence than other commercial aircraft that fly at lower altitudes - that high up and the air doesn't have the density needed to have much of a pronounced affect on the flight. Having said that, the Concorde did occasionally run into some light turbulence during cruise.The Concorde, however, was an anomoly. Most commercial aircraft today stay well below the 40,000 foot mark, with some business jets having a service ceiling closer to 50,000. Let's say you are flying on a major carrier and cruising along at 35,000 feet (pretty typical) - at this altitude you would be well above most weather related turbulence (though not all) but would still be affected by what is commonly called clear air turbulence, or shifting air masses (jet stream has a big impact on CAT). Raising the maximum ceiling of commercial airliners isn't as easy as it may sound. You reach an altitude where the stall speed of the aircraft (minimum speed to maintain flight) is so near the maximum airspeed that its difficult to stay in the safe zone. You also face some safety concerns should a sudden cabin depressurization occur - at those altitudes the amount of time it would take to lose conciousness from a lack of oxygen may well be less than how long it would take you to get your oxygen mask on.
Above what altitude would aircraft no longer be threatened by bad weather?
The lowest layer of the atmosphere, which is the part that we live in, is called the Troposphere. The next layer up is called the Stratosphere. The boundary between the two is called the Tropopause. The Tropopause altitude varies from about 35,000 feet near the poles to about 50,000 feet at the equator.The temperature within the Troposphere decreases as the altitude increases, whereas the temperature within the Stratosphere increases with altitude.Warm moist air near the surface rises in the increasingly cooler air of the Troposphere to form clouds. Clouds can become so large and high that they reach the Tropopause. As the temperature above the Tropopause increases with altitude, the clouds no longer rise because convection no longer works. That is why cumulonimbus clouds form the anvil shape. The moist and relatively warm air cannot penetrate the Tropopause so it spreads out across it as if it has reached the ceiling of a room. You can see the same thing happen in your bathroom if you run your shower without an exhaust fan running. The steam from the shower collects near the ceiling, and spreads across it.Clouds and weather can only exist below the Tropopause so that is the altitude above which bad weather no longer threatens aircraft. Its not a set value of altitude, it varies from the poles to the equator, and it can vary a little due to local influences and time of day. But, if you need a figure then,somewhere between thirty-five and fifty thousand feet.
Why do larger planes fly higher than smaller airplanes?
You’ve probably heard this before, whether you believe it or not.Size doesn’t matter.What does matter is performance and aerodynamics.When you think “larger flies higher than smaller,” you’re probably thinking airliners. But business jets like some of the Gulfstream models cruse at higher altitudes than any airliners.Even better and smaller (at least overall; seats one), the U-2/TR-1 will typically cruse at 70,000 feet and possibly higher. With a glider like wingspan of over 100 feet and a length of only 63 feet (aerodynamics), it’s powered by a Pratt & Whitney J-75 engine capable of pushing it to a maximum speed of about 430 knots (performance).But the J-75 isn’t to maximize speed, it’s about having enough power to propel the aircraft to 70,000 feet.Think about this for a second the next time you’re riding in an airliner at 35,000 feet and look down. A TR-1 might at that very moment be as far above you as you are above the ground!Oh, and to be perfectly honest, size does matter. The smaller and lighter the aircraft is, the less power it takes to reach very high altitudes.By the way, there is also a two seat version of the U2 family of aircraft. An instructor pilot sits in the raised cockpit behind the normal pilot.