It’s no secret that severe winds and lighting can interfere with commercial flights.
If there’s a storm rolling through the airport, commercial airlines may delay their flights until
the storm passes. However, you must be surprised to learn that extreme heat can also interfere with
commercial flights. If the weather is too hot, commercial airlines will ground their planes.
So, why can’t airplanes take off or fly when it is hot?
To better understand why airplanes can’t take off or fly when it is extremely hot,
you must first look at their basic mechanics. All airplanes fly by producing lift with their wings,
how it works is that since airplane wings are shaped to make the air move faster over the top of
the wing so that the pressure of air on top of the wing will decrease. When the pressure on the top
of the wing decreases to the point that it is less than the pressure of air on the bottom of the
wing, it creates a force called lift that pulls the plane up into the air. Of course,
propulsion plays a role here, but it’s the lift that keeps an airplane from falling off the sky.
When it is very hot, airplanes produce won’t produce enough lift to take off because the air
density is lower, which increases the length of runway needed to achieve the speed it will take
to get enough air flowing over the wings to create lift for takeoff.
Going back to the basics of physics 101, heat causes things to expand,
and the air is no exception. Warm air is essentially less dense than cool air.
As a result, that’s why there’s less air to lift airplanes in extreme heat.
With many commercial airplanes boasting a maximum operating temperature of over 120 degrees
Fahrenheit, you might be wondering how common it is for commercial airlines to ground airplanes
because of extreme heat. Well, it’s happened in the past, and it will likely happen again in the
future. In 2017, Phoenix, Arizona experienced a blazing-hot summer with temperatures exceeding 120
degrees Fahrenheit. Because of this, commercial airlines were forced to delay flights.
Meanwhile, have you ever wondered if there are other things airplanes simply can't
or won't do? It turns out that airplanes have strict rules regarding their routes in the sky.
For safety reasons, and for the sake of staying friendly with continental neighbors.
Some of the places they're not allowed to fly over might surprise you.
One good example is Tibet. Look at this data of airlines flying all over the world,
you'll notice something unusual, there are no planes flying over Tibet. The Chinese autonomous
region of Tibet, which is in the southwest part of China, is bordered by India to the west,
Nepal to the southwest, and Myanmar and Bhutan to the southeast side. The Tibetan Plateau,
which is the world's largest and highest plateau, covers around 970,000 square miles,
which is about five times the size of France, and the average elevation is over 14,000 feet,
this is why it is known as the Roof of the World. Tibet is also bordered by the world's two highest
mountain peaks: Mount Everest and mount k2, which stand at 29,000 and 28,000 feet respectively.
During the second world war, flying over Tibet was called Flying the hump. After the Myanmar road was
captured by the Japanese, pilots had to fly cargo from India and Myanmar over Tibet and into China.
The number of flight crews that died flying over the hump were are more than those killed during
the daylight bombing raids over Germany. Despite the great advancement of technology,
why do most airliners continue to avoid flying over Tibet? Hmmm,
it all comes down to four primary reasons. First: “the risk it poses during emergence
situations”. But why is this important since airplanes fly so high in the air?
the average elevation of the Tibetan Plateau is well over 14,000 feet, but airliners can cruise
as high as 35,000 feet, it is not supposed to be a problem because there is a 21,000 feet difference,
but actually, it is a huge problem. Think about it this way: under critical emergency situations
like a cabin depressurization or engine failure, what airlines do is to descend to 10,000 feet.
In a cabin depressurization scenario, the pilots will drop oxygen masks for passengers to breathe,
but oxygen masks are not designed to last the whole flight, they typically last only
around 15 minutes, because their job is only to provide continuous oxygen supply for passengers
while the plane descends own to 10,000 feet, where the passengers can breathe naturally.
But this procedure cannot be performed over the vast Tibetan Plateau, because firstly, it is
over five times the size of France and the average elevation is over 14,000 feet, so the 10,000 feet
safe altitude is lower than that of the ground, so if the plane descends during emergency as protocol
demands, it would almost certainly crash into the side of a mountain, but if the pilots decide to
look for a nearby airport and instead, the only airport big enough for most airliners to divert
to in an emergency are in Lhasa and in Katmandu, which are both separated by over 500 kilometers
from each other, so the plane can’t remain high in the sky because oxygen masks can’t last long
enough to fly out of the mountain area, and they can’t descend either because of the mountains.
Flying over Tibet poses a huge risk during medical emergency situations, if there is
a medical emergency onboard an aircraft, there are no alternative airfields on which the land,
also, landing at Lhasa poses a problem for a lot of people,
because of its elevation of almost 12000 feet, so it takes time for breathing to adjust.
Another reason why airplanes avoid flying over Tibet is clean air turbulence, and this type of
turbulence can't be seen or predicted in advance by pilots. Clean air turbulence occurs when fast
winds try to move across the mountains and the tip of the mountain disrupts their free movement,
it will make the wind take a wave-shaped pattern. And when a plane flies through it, the turbulence
can get extremely violent and bumpy. Apart from Tibet, airplanes won't fly
over Antarctica. Due to the arrangement of the three populated southern continents,
flying over Antarctica wouldn't actually be shorter for most routes. South America, Africa,
and Australia form some kind of a triangle at the "bottom of the world" and the shortest leg between
their largest airports misses most of Antarctica. Still, there are a few routes where flying over
Antarctica would make sense, but the thing is, the shortest route is not always the best route.
Considering the prevailing winds and snowy conditions of the Antarctic mountains, it is the
worst condition to fly in, and this area is very prone to whiteouts, which will make the pilots
unable to see anything at all. Also, in the event of an emergency, landing in Antarctica or its
mountains would expose passengers to some pretty harsh freezing conditions and rough terrain,
besides, mountainous terrain isn't exactly landing friendly either. Annnnd also, the penguins might
not welcome you to their territory haha. Apart from Antarctica, airplanes won't fly
directly over the North Pole because it has a super-strong magnetic field that is constantly
changing. Their reach and direction can change by miles a year. The reason it is such a big deal is
that, flying over the North Pole can interfere with navigation systems that rely on magnetism,
if the magnetic field has moved, True North might look different to the pilot than what it actually
is, making it difficult for them to navigate or find the correct runway when they are coming in
to land. Airports number the runways according to how far off to North they are, for example,
the 0/360 position on a compass mark north; 90 degrees marks east; 180 degrees marks south;
and 270 degrees marks west. Every runway has a different number, expressed in a shorthand format,
painted at each end to designate its orientation. A runway facing due west
on one end and due east on the other would be marked 27 and 9 respectively. Also, a runway
with a northwest/southeast orientation might be marked 31 on one side and 14 on the other.
If a strong magnetic field, like the one that the North Pole has made a big movement and causes the
pilot to adjust their navigation from true north, they may not know if they are headed to land on
the correct runway, because their readings will be inconsistent with the numbers on the ground.
Another thing airplanes won’t do is fly straight across the Pacific Ocean. And
the reason this happens is that curved routes are shorter than straight routes.
Flat maps are somewhat confusing because the Earth itself isn’t flat. Rather, it’s spherical.
As a result, straight routes don’t offer the shortest distance between two locations.
Whether a commercial airline is flying from the United States to Asia or elsewhere,
it will have the fastest and most fuel-efficient flight by performing a curved route. Let’s sayyyyy
you are flying California to Hong Kong, you will notice that your plane kind of flies straight up
north, and after sometimes, you kind of see yourself flying south. Pilots Fly north to
fly south because it is practically faster, more efficient, and better than flying west to reach
east, but you have to avoid flying too close to the north pole while making that journey.
But if the flight is bound for Australia, then flying straight over the pacific
is definitely the best bet. So, this is it, hope you learnt
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