Most Popular
1500 questions
41
votes
5 answers
How do aircraft windshields not crack when flying at supersonic speeds through precipitation?
Randall Munroe (author of XKCD and What If), once wrote a What If about how fast one would have to drive a car in order to have rain water shatter the windshield.
In the post he mentions that water hitting a windshield at supersonic speeds has the…
Jae Carr
- 24,145
- 38
- 131
- 228
41
votes
8 answers
Why don't airlines load their passengers like freight?
Apparently, the time for boarding and deboarding an airplane is a large cost factor and something airlines try to minimize but have trouble controlling because the passengers do it themselves.
A solution would be to have passengers board a passenger…
yippy_yay
- 7,365
- 14
- 52
- 67
41
votes
5 answers
How does an airliner deal with cabin altitude at an airport above 8000 ft?
There are a number of airports above 8000 ft altitude. FAR 25.841 states:
Pressurized cabins and compartments to be occupied must be equipped to provide a cabin pressure altitude of not more than 8,000 feet at the maximum operating altitude
How…
vasin1987
- 8,128
- 7
- 44
- 79
40
votes
1 answer
What is the meaning of these stencils, usually found on military planes?
I am wondering what these markings (which I found both in the French Super Etendard and in the British Tornado) indicate? They may be something relevant for the maintenance crews.
Marcello Rosa
- 361
- 3
- 5
40
votes
3 answers
Why might a too-wide runway be a problem?
In the September 2020 issue of EAA's Sport Aviation, Budd Davisson writes
Runway width becomes a problem for some taildraggers when it gets to be less than 35-40 feet because of the lack of visibility.
Sure. When you can't see the centerline,…
Camille Goudeseune
- 11,726
- 1
- 42
- 78
40
votes
6 answers
What's the point in escorting a threatened flight with two fighter jets?
Two days ago I read in the news:
Two U.S. fighter jets escorted a Canada-to-Panama flight back to
Toronto after a passenger allegedly threatened the plane Friday
morning. The nature of the threat or why the passenger was agitated
were not…
B Faley
- 503
- 1
- 4
- 7
40
votes
7 answers
How do pilots manage to keep aircraft on centerline during taxi?
Cockpits usually seem to have windows that are high up and it doesn't seem from pictures that they would allow a pilot to look down so easily while sitting in their seat. Please correct me if that is wrong because that is the basic assumption of…
Hanky Panky
- 6,011
- 9
- 40
- 54
40
votes
2 answers
Why are the pitot tubes on supersonic combat aircraft so long?
I've noticed that on combat aircraft the forward (nose-mounted) pitot tube is usually very long, on the order of half a meter to well over a meter on some aircraft. Why are they so long? Surely the body of the aircraft is not disturbing the air in…
dotancohen
- 6,357
- 4
- 33
- 55
40
votes
11 answers
Why do new jet engines cost billions to design?
This question might come off as crude because it involves people's salaries, but I do not understand why new designs of large turbofans cost many billions of dollars to design. For example, the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan apparently cost 10…
DrZ214
- 17,711
- 17
- 99
- 207
40
votes
9 answers
What are the pros and cons of high-wing compared to low-wing design?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a high-wing vs. low-wing aircraft design? When might one prefer one to the other?
Is the answer the same for large and small aircraft?
maimou
- 1,194
- 3
- 12
- 16
40
votes
9 answers
Why don't short runways use ramps for takeoff?
Say you had a runway for light aircraft, but only 700 meters or so of runway. Wouldn't it help to end the runway with a ramp that is ~40 meters above ground and slightly facing the sky at a gradient of 5%. Imagine the runway below was 700 meters…
Jalapeno
- 511
- 1
- 4
- 6
40
votes
2 answers
MH370 blackbox - is it still possible to retrieve data from it?
If the blackbox of MH370 were to be found today, would it actually still provide any information, assuming that it was in 5km deep water or so for some 5 years now?
If not, why would you still be looking for the missing aircraft and especially the…
Windshear
- 931
- 6
- 7
40
votes
1 answer
What's parked in Mil Moscow helicopter plant?
This answer has a photo of a Mil Mi-26 that I felt in love with, so I looked in Wikipedia and learned it's the largest production helicopter, second only to Mil V-12 that flew as a prototype.
In turn, Wikipedia's V-12 article gave a link to the…
gboffi
- 641
- 6
- 8
40
votes
2 answers
What is this high flying aircraft over Pennsylvania?
Yesterday afternoon I photographed a Boeing 777-300ER flying over my home, according to radar data it was at approximately 32,000 ft. In the photograph there is another aircraft present, it is much smaller and higher in altitude (40,000-50,000 ft)…
user38075
- 401
- 1
- 4
- 3
40
votes
1 answer
Which aircraft had such a luxurious-looking navigator's station?
I'm reading the BBC's How Fiji changed the way we travel; The little Pacific island nation was the first to incorporate GPS into its aviation system – and in doing so forever changed the way we get from Point A to distant Point B. and saw this photo…
uhoh
- 5,808
- 3
- 32
- 71