What exactly is turbulence, and is it at all an indication of danger during a flight?
In: Physics
Air turbulence is air that isn’t “smooth”. Smooth air is air that isn’t moving around, up, down, or sideways.
Imagine a boat going over a smooth lake. No waves. No turbulence.
Now imagine that same boat going over a rough lake. Waves are caused by movement of my water. Boats can tolerate a lot of of waves, usually more than what they passengers can tolerate. But if they waves get too big and the boat tries to go too fast then the boat may flip over or swamp or break.
So if an aircraft is flying through air that is moving then the aircraft will bump around, much like the boat on the rough water.
The aircraft can tolerate a lot of turbulence, probably more than that passengers will tolerate.
But if they turbulence is bad then the pilot should slow the aircraft down to less than the “maneuvering” speed. This allows the aircraft to safely tolerate the turbulence.
Still, if the turbulence gets bad enough, the aircraft could be damaged. The point that this happens varies based on which way the air is moving and how fast the aircraft is going, how much weight the aircraft is carrying, and what type of aircraft it is.
Usually this type of turbulence would be found in a hurricane or a very strong thunderstorm.
A commercial airliner is likely able to safely tolerate more turbulence than the passengers on board. By that I mean that the passengers are probably going to be sick and be tossed around like rag dolls before the aircraft suffers any real damage.
I mean, overhead compartments may pop open and stuff will be falling and tossed around, and people won’t be able to stand or walk before the aircraft breaks and falls out of the sky.
Airlines that operate in these conditions quickly get a bad reputation and go out of business, so airlines know to avoid bad turbulence.
It upsets the customers and the cleaning crew has to spend more time cleaning the aircraft cabin for the next flight.
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