I hope I convey my point probably, but why do planes go so many thousands of feet in the air? Is it faster that way, or could they achieve similar flight times at a lower altitude?
Does it have something to do with the curvature of the earth?
In: Engineering
Whatever plane you have runs at as high of power as it runs at (
POWER
=THRUST (important later)), and as I can guess that anyone could guess thrust has something to do with speed (also relevant later… but let’s assume 100٪ throttle/thrust–>same thing (ultimately)).
All airplane wings have a fixed airfoil. The airfoil is what provides lift.
LIFT
= ALTITUDE (ultimately).
So the trick with understanding those two variables at once and relative to each other is:
the FASTER and airplane goes the
HIGHER IT CAN go until it reaches air thin enough such that at its given (max?) speed (as defined by how much it’s being PUSHED by the (given)) thrust with the fixed airfoil it cannot go any higher… on the other hand it’s going as fast as it can go because the thrust is there but no energy is going into Rising the altitude anymore
So what does the airplane do with the extra energy not being used anymore to push it upwards… it converts it into SPEED.
So what do modern ( think all ) airplanes do? They set their throttle for maximum engine efficiency and leave it theren which provides X amount of
THRUST, which provides X amount of
ALTITUDE which provides X amount of
SPEED… ultimately.
This is why modern airliners (physics wise relatively equal to each other) always fly at 30 some thousand feet at 600 and some miles an hour. THRUST.
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