How come if a window is smashed out on an airplane it will cause a disaster but other planes can open doors with no problem.

Question

Was on a flight the other day and remembered as a kid being worried the window would break and everyone would get thrown out of the plane, but went sky diving and half the plane was open with no issue. What’s the difference?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Speed and altitude. Skydiving aircraft fly significantly lower and slower than your turbofan jet. Turbofan aircraft cruise primarily between 30,000 and 39,000 at around .78 mach or so.

Your average skydiving altitude is less than half of 30,000 and the speed is around 90 knots or so? I’m not a skydiving pilot, just a CFI so these are my best guesses at numbers.

Primarily the main difference is the pressure at 37,000 vs the pressure at say 12,000 feet. Maybe a skydiving pilot can answer more in depth than I can.