eli5 How can planes fly at much higher altitude than helicopters?
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We calculate lift (the force that allows us to fly) through several factors. The 3 main ones for this problem are velocity of the airflow, density of the air, and surface area of the wing. Helicopters achieve lift by pushing multiple small thin wings through the air very fast. We can only move those blades so fast through the air and we can’t really change their surface area because bigger blades are harder to spin faster. So the max lift a helicopter can make is closely tied to the density of the air. As elementary science teaches us, as we go up in altitude, the density of air decreases.
Airplanes on the other hand achieve their lift by pushing large wings through the air at relatively slower speeds. This means we can increase lift by going faster or by designing bigger wings. Thus an airplane has more options to adapt to the less dense air at altitude.
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