The NOAA has flights going through Hurricane Milton to collect data – how are these safe?
In: Physics
Highly trained pilots is the key; specially aircraft with tons of instruments for both navigation and data collection
It would not be advisable for a passenger jet or small aircraft
Understandably, when you build an airplane you make it so that it can handle high wind speeds because that’s what flying is.
You get a sturdy enough plane and it can handle it.
If you consider how fast planes are flying through the air on a regular flight, planes are barreling through the air at speeds that are far faster than any hurricane.
The average speed of a passenger jet in the air is 460-575 miles per hour. In comparison, the wind speed of a category 5 hurricane (the most severe hurricane) is 157 miles per hour or greater. A plane flying into that wind would only have to slow down a little, if at all, to handle the wind speed of the hurricane.
At ground level, hurricanes are much more destructive, and can carry solid debris in them that can cause major damage in addition to damage caused by wind and rain. That debris is much heavier than air, though, and the hurricane cannot lift it very high off of the ground. At the height that airplanes fly, they are very far away from any solid debris that the hurricane is carrying.
Planes already fly hundreds of miles per hour. Flying through wind at that speed is not a big deal.
They fly specially designed planes for it, but essentially why those planes can fly through a Hurricane when no planes can fly through a Tornado is wind direction. With Hurricanes, winds are horizontal in direction whereas with Tornadoes, winds can be in vertical down or up direction.
every answer in here is wrong so far. planes do not feel wind. they fly in the air column. do you feel the current in a river when you swim across? no. you do feel turbulence tho. and hurricanes have all kinds of wind shear.
Depending on the hurricane and the ceiling of the cloud formation, its also possible to fly over the hurricane and then down into the eye. Specialized jets can operate well above 40,000 feet and might take this approach vs traveling through the storm wall. Depends on what NOAA is wanting to measure or track.
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