Timeline for From what distance can a man hear and see an airplane flying overhead, without any equipments?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
16 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 14, 2022 at 18:25 | vote | accept | Zeta.Investigator | ||
| Mar 9, 2022 at 13:22 | comment | added | jcaron | I seriously doubt you would always hear the plane before you see it. Also you haven’t factored altitude which can change things a lot. And of course weather and the time of day as well. | |
| Mar 8, 2022 at 20:12 | comment | added | Ralph J♦ | ... there is so much "it depends" involved here that any answer is only good to about an order of magnitude. Something with older, loud engines at climb power will be detectable much farther than something new like a B-787 at cruise power. Then there's aircraft altitude. And ambient noise for the observer. And atmospheric conditions. And aircraft size and aspect. And ambient light. And cues like contrails, sunlight glinting off metal surfaces, and so on. Any number you get that applies to "this" case may be far off for many other cases. | |
| Mar 8, 2022 at 20:09 | comment | added | Ralph J♦ | The box should be a circle... an aircraft just outside the box at the midpoint of a side would be closer to the observer than an aircraft just inside the box at a corner. But beyond that... | |
| Mar 8, 2022 at 18:48 | comment | added | FreeMan | Whose ears and eyes are we using? Sadly, my ears don't quite hear as well as they used to (invincible teenager listening to loud music against parent's recommendation), and my eyes don't see as well as I'd like them to (despite new contacts). However, a good friend of mine can read small text at distances where I can't even make out that there is text to be read. | |
| Mar 8, 2022 at 18:14 | comment | added | Nuclear Hoagie | Do you need to be able to identify the shape of the object as a plane? Or is a pinprick of sunlight glinting off a fuselage sufficient? Stars, for example, are visible at distances of trillions of kilometers, although they have effectively zero angular diameter so their shape cannot be resolved. But we can still look at the sky and easily identify that something is there. Similarly, a plane could theoretically be visible at distances much farther than the distance at which you'd be able to visually identify it as a plane. | |
| Mar 8, 2022 at 18:03 | answer | added | WPNSGuy | timeline score: 3 | |
| Mar 8, 2022 at 17:42 | comment | added | randomhead | I regularly hear aircraft passing overhead at FL360 or higher (approx. 6 nautical miles high), if I'm away from other sources of noise. I definitely don't hear them very far laterally laterally though. Aircraft can be seen with the unaided eye at that altitude but it's very difficult to find them in the first place unless they're creating contrails that lead to their position. | |
| Mar 8, 2022 at 17:34 | answer | added | Dave | timeline score: 4 | |
| Mar 8, 2022 at 17:33 | comment | added | Anonymous Physicist | Maybe a 727 during takeoff? | |
| Mar 8, 2022 at 17:29 | history | edited | Zeta.Investigator | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 8, 2022 at 17:16 | comment | added | Zeta.Investigator | @AnonymousPhysicist I just want approximate bounds. Assume largest plane and loudest engines in the commercial market. | |
| Mar 8, 2022 at 17:15 | history | edited | Zeta.Investigator | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 8, 2022 at 17:13 | comment | added | Anonymous Physicist | Maybe specify the engine type and number of engines? Planes are getting quieter. For a loud one, see aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/21683/…. | |
| S Mar 8, 2022 at 17:07 | review | First questions | |||
| Mar 8, 2022 at 18:07 | |||||
| S Mar 8, 2022 at 17:07 | history | asked | Zeta.Investigator | CC BY-SA 4.0 |