Most commercial airplanes have a certified maximum altitude of about 40,000 to 45,000 feet . Regardless of its certified maximum altitude, if an airplane flies too high, it may fail in one or more ways. For starters, the engine may suffocate from a lack of oxygen.
What happens if an airline goes too high?
If a passenger jet flies too high it reaches a point called ‘Coffin Corner’ . This is the point at which the aircraft’s low speed stall and high-speed buffet meet and the plane can no longer maintain its altitude which forces it to descend.
What is the highest altitude a plane can fly?
Question: What is the highest altitude an airplane can fly? Answer: The highest commercial airliner altitude was 60,000 feet by Concorde. The highest military air-breathing engine airplane was the SR-71 — about 90,000 feet. The highest airliner flying today reaches 45,000 feet .
How high can normal airplanes fly?
Commercial aircraft typically fly between 31,000 and 38,000 feet — about 5.9 to 7.2 miles — high and usually reach their cruising altitudes in the first 10 minutes of a flight, according to Beckman. Planes can fly much higher than this altitude, but that can present safety issues.
How high can a plane fly before leaving the atmosphere?
Commercial planes fly between 35,000 and 42,000 feet these days – which is upwards of 6.6 miles up in the air. But if they go too high it wouldn’t be good for anyone on board.
Why is flying over Antarctica illegal?
The polar regions have special navigation concerns in the form of the magnetic fields which permeate them. These can make it difficult for planes to navigate because the polar areas interfere with magnetic navigational tools.
Why do planes not fly directly over the Pacific Ocean?
The primary reason airplanes don’t fly over the Pacific Ocean is because curved routes are shorter than straight routes . Flat maps are somewhat confusing because the Earth itself isn’t flat. Rather, it’s spherical. As a result, straight routes don’t offer the shortest distance between two locations.
Why do aircraft fly at 35000 feet?
A balance between operating costs and fuel efficiency is achieved somewhere around 35,000 feet, which is why commercial airplanes usually fly at that altitude. Most commercial airplanes cruise at an altitude of nearly 35,000 feet—around 6.62 miles (10,600 meters) in the air!
Can planes fly at 50000 feet?
The highest that a business jet can fly is 51,000 feet. The highest that a commercial airplane can fly is 45,000 feet. Most military planes fly at around 50,000 feet and sometimes higher. Some rocket-powered planes can fly as high as 100,000 feet but they are specially designed for this purpose.
Why do airlines fly so high?
One of the main reasons commercial airplanes fly so high is air resistance. You see, the higher you go above the ground, the thinner the atmosphere becomes, and therefore, the less resistance there is on the movement of the plane.
Do planes go faster at higher altitudes?
One of the central reasons behind aircraft altitude is that, as the air gets thinner with every foot climbed, planes can travel more easily and therefore move faster and burn less fuel, saving money.
Can a plane go into space?
Planes can and have flown into space for over 50 years – though not the kind you see at the airport. ... In 1963, an X-15 using a propellant of oxygen and ethyl alcohol reached an altitude of over 100km, widely recognised as the altitude at which space begins.
How high can a plane fly without oxygen?
When the altitude of an airplane is less than 12,500 feet , there is no supplemental oxygen required for anyone in a private plane. From 12,500 feet to 14,000 feet, supplemental oxygen must be used by the required flight crew for any portion of the flight that is more than 30 minutes.
Why is flying over the North Pole illegal?
Adding to the problems are the fact that being so near the North Pole can interfere with navigation systems that rely on magnetism . Planes flying in the North Pole, thus, need to have equipment that can compensate for this as best as possible.
What countries are you not allowed to fly over?
- Australia.
- China.
- Cuba.
- Finland.
- France.
- Greece.
- Hungary.
- India.
Is it illegal to live in Antarctica?
No-one lives in Antarctica indefinitely in the way that they do in the rest of the world. It has no commercial industries, no towns or cities, no permanent residents. The only “settlements” with longer term residents (who stay for some months or a year, maybe two) are scientific bases.
