I was on a flight looking down at the cars on the highway and it hit me, like the higher you go the higher the radius is to cover the same distance as ground transportation. I’m sure there’s a cool reason and history. To make up for the extra fuel to get up that high and the extra miles added. Anyone? Does it have to do with less air pressure. And the efficiency aerodynamic wise? Or noise pollution? Visual pollution? I just always took it as a non ask, “We’re this high, cuz we’re in a plane. Duh”
In: 2
Air resistance mostly. Going that fast creates a ton of drag, so you want to minimize the amount of air there is around you. They also avoid a lot of unwanted weather by flying that high and minimize noise.
And it doesn’t really take that much extra fuel to get higher up, since you’re also saving fuel on the descent.
Latest Answers