56
votes
What prevents a small plane like a Cessna or Piper from flying as high as a jet?
We will take the case of an unsupercharged piston engine, as used in most small Cessnas and Pipers.
All engines need the oxygen in air to burn their fuel. As an airplane climbs, the air thins out and ...
- 22.1k
51
votes
Is it possible to fly a B-24 under Bixby Bridge?
A Liberator has wingspan of 34m, while the central span of the bridge is 110m wide, and 280ft high, so the aircraft will fit under the bridge.
Bixby creek approaches the bridge from the north-east, ...
- 451
45
votes
Accepted
Is the aircraft used by NOAA specially modified?
Except for modifications related to instrumentation, not much. The WP-3D was developed from the Lockheed P-3 Orion, which was a navalized L-188 Electra.
Orion is a sturdy platform. Used during the ...
- 100k
42
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to fly a B-24 under Bixby Bridge?
Neglecting any potential power lines, I believe the manoeuvre is possible. I had to play around a little bit to get my simulation to work, though, showing that in real life, any attempt to underfly ...
- 4,817
38
votes
Accepted
What's the purpose of "over G" penalties in Red Bull Air Race?
It's a safety rule to protect the limits of the airframe and the pilot.
See the video (also on youtube) from this Red Bull Air Race page which explains the rules. The G-limit is discussed from 3:30.
...
- 83.8k
37
votes
Is it possible to fly a B-24 under Bixby Bridge?
Interesting... It looks possible under ideal conditions in a modern aircraft. (I attempted a basic simulated flight in google-earth flight simulator-vid below)
Edit: The service cables mentioned in ...
- 471
35
votes
Why can we not use full throttle in a C172 when cruising at lower altitudes?
These engines are not designed to run at maximum horsepower output all the time with a lean mixture. They are designed to cruise at 50-75% of their rated max power, and deal with that level of ...
- 134k
32
votes
Is the aircraft used by NOAA specially modified?
The simple answer to your question is no - the aircraft is not structurally modified. However, to add some context to @aeroalias's answer, here is a great visualization of windspeeds at various ...
- 1,612
28
votes
Accepted
Why is a 737 Original speed-restricted below 10 kft with inoperative windscreen heating?
To reduce damage in case of a bird strike.
The restriction is not only for the 737-100 and -200 models, the 737 NG QRH says:
WINDOW HEAT OFF
In flight:
WINDOWS HEAT switch (affected window) ..... OFF
...
- 57.7k
27
votes
Accepted
What prevents a small plane like a Cessna or Piper from flying as high as a jet?
What limits a small plane to be able to fly at a much higher altitude?
Money.
Power and lift on an aeroplane both decrease with increasing altitude, as shown in the image above, from my paper copy ...
- 62.3k
22
votes
What is a Cessna 172's maximum altitude?
The absolute ceiling, or the maximum height an aircraft can fly to, is usually not published; manufacturers usually use service ceiling as the benchmark. Service ceiling is the maximum altitude which ...
- 74.6k
22
votes
Is it okay to take off with weight more than the POH max gross weight?
Can you take off over gross weight? Yes, it's possible on any airplane, dependent on how far over the weight limit you are, the density altitude, how much runway you have, what obstacles are in the ...
- 54.2k
22
votes
Is it right to extend flaps only in the white arc?
Yes you must slow down to the white arc, or whatever your flap extension speed is for a given condition, regardless. If you are 10kts above the white arc and drop flaps anyway, it's not going to make ...
- 134k
19
votes
Accepted
Is there anything extra required to spin a Cessna 172 in the Utility category?
Provided you meet ALL of the requirements for utility category operation as spelled out in the POH (within W&B limits for the utility envelope, no aft passengers, empty baggage compartment, and ...
- 68.6k
17
votes
Accepted
How high can a ramjet go?
Here's a quick estimate for this.
The maximum altitude for level flight is when the engine can't produce the thrust required to fly fast enough to generate the lift required to balance the weight.
...
- 3,353
14
votes
Accepted
What makes the Antonov An-2 have no stall speed?
The horizontal tail can't make sufficient down force to slow the plane to get the slatted wings to stalling AOA. With the slat system, the stalling AOA will be perhaps 10 degrees higher than without. ...
- 134k
13
votes
What prevents a small plane like a Cessna or Piper from flying as high as a jet?
The previous answers give an excellent overview of limiting factors regarding high altitude flight with powered civil aviation aircraft like a small Cessna.
Of interest might be that people have ...
- 1,506
13
votes
Accepted
Why did Concorde have a max pitch down attitude in supersonic flight?
I'm assembling this answer mostly based on Concorde operating manual, volume 2, in French.
ADI
The Attitude & Director Indicator is (was) actually a superb instrument, only outdone by the Orbiter ...
- 77.1k
12
votes
What is a Cessna 172's maximum altitude?
In September of 2007 in my 0-360 1959 172 I attained 18,003 ft GPS above 19AZ. I checked with Cessna customer service. The fella called me back a couple of days later. As far as he could find I did ...
- 121
12
votes
Accepted
What is the maximum crosswind limit for a C150/2 aircraft?
Section 4 of the C152 POH lists the demonstrated crosswind component as 12KIAS. The 150 had a few variants so finding a published number is a bit more tricky. The Aerobat's are sometimes listed as ...
- 35.2k
12
votes
Accepted
Why would Boeing be under review if crew-error is determined to be the cause?
In aviation (and other safety critical areas) it's not enough to just look at the first cause of an accident, you have to look at why that mistake was made, and why that thing happened, as far back up ...
- 3,353
11
votes
Is it possible to fly a B-24 under Bixby Bridge?
As for why a military pilot would do something like that, consider the context in which it was happening.
This would have been during WW2 training, when losses, especially to bomber crews, were very ...
- 8,807
10
votes
Is it possible to fly a B-24 under Bixby Bridge?
As reirab mentioned there are currently utility lines that run half way up the arch. Looking at a modern picture you can see it's a communications line on the east side of the bridge with poles ...
- 201
10
votes
How much can I exceed crosswind limits by?
What do you think will happen if your instructor checks your logbook and sees that you soloed on a day when the crosswind never got below, say 10 kt (a bit more than half again the student limit, but ...
- 17.2k
10
votes
Is it right to extend flaps only in the white arc?
It depends upon what the manufacturer recommends on the form of the AFM in cockpit placards. Certain aircraft do allow extension of the flaps outside the white arc for certain flap settings. For ...
- 74.6k
10
votes
Why can we not use full throttle in a C172 when cruising at lower altitudes?
Most Cessna 172s have fixed-pitch propellers. Designing a fixed-pitch prop always requires making some compromise between climb performance and cruise performance. Typically this means that at low ...
- 4,640
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