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
True ELI5: the air is thinner higher up. That means that an airplane has to work less hard against the air to actually do the travel.
* Quieter for people on the ground.
* Thinner air for better ‘gas mileage.’
* In an emergency, more time to correct before going crashy, crash
* You can fly over the top of a lot of the bad weather
When jets were first tested, the pilots found that the engines became more powerful as they climbed higher. They had to throttle back to avoid going dangerously fast. Now jets fly at high altitudes to use less fuel.
If you could fly like superman but just your normal human self, would you rather:
Fly at hundreds of miles an hour face first through an infinite ball pit of those hard plastic balls?
Or through an infinite “ball pit” of bubbles that pop on contact?
The higher the altitude, the less dense the air is. Easier to fly through as there is less stuff hitting you in the face.
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