What exactly is turbulence, and is it at all an indication of danger during a flight?
In: Physics
its just flying through a change in air speed or direction. nothing to worry about, engineers already thought about it and pilots go through training.
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.
Are potholes on the road an indication of danger during a drive?
Turbulence is just that, turbulent air that rattles the plane around. Sure it feels weird but so do potholes some times. Turbulence would have to be extreme to damage a plane.
You in turbulence: ***OMG! ARE WE GOING TO DIE?!?!?!***
Pilots in turbulence: “Dammit I spilled my juice.”
Airframes are incredibly strong and it would take some remarkable turbulence (think severe thunderstorm) to cause damage.
Turbulence is not dangerous to the aircraft at all. The only danger that turbulence poses is for the squishy bits inside the plane. Particularly any of them that aren’t wearing their seatbelts.
For a description of turbulence think of it just like waves in the water. Sometimes the water is smooth. Sometimes it’s bumpy. And usually the smoothness or bumpiness is caused by wind (or a lack thereof). Turbulence is similar. If your plane is flying in an airmass with a 100 knot tailwind and then suddenly (over the course of 10-20 miles or so) that wind changes to a 100 knot crosswind you’re going to most likely feel some bumps.
There are other causes of turbulence as well. During summer months turbulence can be created closer to the ground by daytime heating. The sun heats up the ground and the ground heats up the air close to it. Hot air rises and you have turbulence due to day time heating. Imagine a pot of water as it’s just about to boil. Again though, it’s not dangerous.
Another type of turbulence is wake turbulence. As planes fly through the air they disturb the air they’re travelling through. Just like the wake behind a boat. This type of turbulence can be severe in short bursts and it’s the reason we have separation requirements between aircraft. Wake dissipates relatively quickly so 6-7 miles of separation is typically enough.
Lastly another type of turbulence can be caused by orographic lift. Which is another way to say mountains cause turbulence. Depending on the direction of the mountain range, and the direction that the wind is coming from a mountain range can cause some significant turbulence. And this can continue up to 200 miles past the mountain range. I’ve encountered this numerous times flying over The Rockies. It’s not dangerous and it typically doesn’t last too long.
turbulence is to planes as gravel is to cars. when you go over gravel, there are bumps but you seldom will have issues with the car. same with planes.
Ironically, turbulence is an indication the plane is flying just fine. Turbulence occurs from turbulent air (like hitting waves in a boat as someone else said), which means the plane is producing lift. A common cause of plane crashes are stalls or uncontrolled descents, which means the plane would be in rapid freefall and likely no turbulence. It would probably feel very calm, but the feeling would be like a drop on a roller coaster. If you get that freefall feeling without the plane recovering or hitting some turbulence, then that’s not a good sign haha.
It’s like a boat hitting waves, or a car driving on a bumpy road.
In very uncommon circumstances it can pose real danger, but 9999/10000 times, it’s just going to cause some harmless bumps.
It’s nothing to worry about.
Imagine a container of jello. Open it up, and wedge a tiny toy airplane about halfway down, suspended in the jello — not touching the bottoms, sides, or top. The airplane is “held up” by the Jello now, much the same way an airplane is “held up” by the airflow around the wings.
Now tap the top of the Jello. This sends waves through the Jello — Jello is a fluid, albeit a very thick one, after all. So is air! That’s why they call it *fluid dynamics*. You’ll see that, as you shake the Jello, tap it, move it around, the plane suspended in the Jello *cough*air*cough* also vibrates up and down.
This is turbulence. Just as you won’t rip the wings off the toy airplane tapping the Jello, try as you might, it won’t happen on a modern airliner.
I used to be afraid of turbulence until explained thats it basically feels like a car ride.
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