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
The less air in front of you, the more fuel efficient it is to go forward.
There is less air at higher atmospheres.
A fun additional problem is that jets use some air for fuel.
Which means at altitudes that are *too high* the jets can neither generate enough air to stay up **or** go forward.
It’s a balancing act:
The faster you go, the more fuel you use, but the more fuel you have.
Likewise: the higher you go the less fuel you need, but the less fuel you have.
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