Shark-like fossil with manta 'wings' is unlike anything seen before. Bottom line? Based on the odds, Dr. Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars? One of the main concerns people have about flying in bad weather is lightning. Check your itinerary online or call the carrier to see if your flight's been affected.

If you are an anxious flyer there is no doubt that you thought had experienced some turbulence that you thought was going to take the plane down. The reality however is that commercial airliners are able to withstand incredible amounts of turbulence. The reason that pilots change altitudes to find calmer air is not because they are worried about the planes wings ripping off, they are doing it for the comfort of the passengers.

Modern airliners are built to withstand extreme amounts of stress in both positive and negative G loads. While pilots will do everything they can to avoid turbulence, it cannot be seen in the air, so it is likely that you will experience some from time to time. Pilots will do their best to avoid it, by getting reports from other pilots flying on their same route to find out where the smoothest air is. So what exactly causes turbulence?

The most common cause is drastic changes in the weather and atmosphere. Some causes can include:. The injuries that have been reported due to turbulence are not because of any structural damage to the aircraft, it is because during turbulence, which is often unpredictable, passengers are not wearing their seat belts, and even the slightest turbulence can cause them to be thrown about the cabin. The biggest problem that fog poses is lack of visibility.

This is generally not a problem in modern times due to the advancement of autopilot and GPS technology, pilots are able to fly effortlessly through the clouds without being able to see where they are going. This however does not meant that they land the plane completely blind. This gives the pilots the training and skills necessary to safely fly a plane in IMC instrument meteorological conditions.

While in IMC conditions, your eyes and your mind can play tricks on you. These instruments and autopilot systems can fly an aircraft from right after take off all the way to just before touchdown, when the pilots are required to take over controls and land the airplane safely.

Unmanned aerial vehicles have been landing themselves for awhile now, so it is possible. Just recently in May of , a team of researchers at the Technical University of Munich outfitted a general aviation Diamond DA42 with a custom automatic control system and was landed autonomously without any pilot input, though a pilot was in the cockpit. The video can be seen here on YouTube.

Instrument flying technology since then has become much more advanced and safe. This is a system that allows an aircrafts position, altitude, and tail number to be displayed on an aircrafts in cockpit GPS system. Each aircraft that is commissioned for travel with passengers goes through extensive testing by the manufacturer.

These include testing the structures and systems well beyond anything that they would encounter in the real world. Some examples of tests they go through are:. In more severe cases you may have seen it flexing quite a bit. Well aircraft manufacturers test exactly this. Many modern passenger aircraft can flex their wings nearly 90 degrees in their tests! For example, Airbus performed a maximum load test on the airframe of the A in December of They put a load on the wing that would be 1.

There is no doubt that airplanes are not the only thing in the sky. It originally belonged to the birds before man learned how to fly, so they are and will always be a chance encounter of a bird strike. While most bird strikes cause little damage to the plane, in Captain Sullys case, it can cause catastrophic damage to the engines, should enough of them go through at once.

To ensure that engines will still operate even after a bird strike, engine manufacturers will run tests where they actually do throw already dead birds into a test engine on the ground.

They also test striking the airplanes cockpit windshield to see if it is strong enough to not break from the force. Not only are birds an issue, but water as well. Airplanes will still take off in wet conditions, assuming that they are not severe. Engineers will force steady streams of water through an engine and even ice to simulate flying through clouds containing hail. This means that an aircrafts structure, systems, and engines are subject to some extreme temperature changes over the course of a flight.

Engineers will test these conditions by suscepting an airframe and its engines to extreme heat as well as freezing temperatures to simulate what it would be like in the real world. They perform all kinds trials including:. Pretty much everything you can think of they throw at the aircraft to make sure it still performs within safety specifications.

The aircrafts systems are assembled in this facility and then computers performs actually functioning tests on an ongoing basis on hydraulic pumps, electrical and mechanical systems, etc. Computer models and simulations these days are incredibly accurate and can test an aircrafts systems up to a point.

But when you get to all the complex systems interacting with each other, it can be difficult for computers to predict reactions ahead of time. Many issues may not turn up until you actually hook all the systems up together and use them simultaneously, this is where the Iron Bird comes in. As discussed above, lightning happens frequently and planes can often find themselves being struck by it. This however usually does not cause any issues for the aircraft due to the extensive testing that is done.

Traditional aluminium planes are highly conductive and it can dissipate the electricity through the airframe without causing any damage. Modern aircraft however are built using much lighter weight composite materials so they need to be protected from lightning. At a lightning test laboratory in Cardiff, UK, they test different aircraft material to understand their reactions and to ensure that they are safe for use in commercial airliners.

So the next time you are anxious about boarding a modern commercial airliner, you can rest assured that the aircraft had already gone through extensive research and testing before it was placed into service.

Being aboard a commercial aircraft is Jet Planes Meeting In The Air World just about the safest way to travel, even if you happen to run into a few bumps along the way. Also remember, try not to get discouraged the next time you have a flight that is canceled. The pilots likely canceled it for a very good reason.

Even though they are aware that their planes can withstand nearly everything that gets thrown at it, they only have your safety in mind. Having the aircraft cabin pressurized is how airplanes are able to fly at high altitudes. Can airplanes land in rain? While it is not ideal due to the runway being more slick and it will be harder for them to slow down, generally they are landing on runways with plenty of length to allow for the extra braking distance needed. Granted, pilots will choose the side of safety and may divert to an alternate airport if there is a very strong rainstorm at their destination.

Can airplanes fly through tropical storms? Technically yes, they can, but will they? Probably not. Commercial airline pilots will definitely take action to fly around or over any tropical storms as the turbulence in or around them can be severe.

During LVPs, Air Traffic will reduce the number of aircraft taxing and taking off to prevent accidents and incidents occurring. Fog is often patchy and variable — with some airports affected while others remain clear. For a morning flight, our team can also arrange for aircraft to position in for your flight departure the night before, which can help to avoid delays.

Aircraft can operate perfectly safely in hot and sunny weather, in very high temperatures up to 53C, depending on the aircraft type. But a high air temperature does change the performance of the aircraft. Hot air is thinner than cooler air. Wind direction and speed can make a flight time quite different, for exactly the same journey. These time differences are most dramatically seen on transatlantic flights , due to jet streams. Where these packets of fast moving air form a tube, they are called jet streams.

Aircraft are built and tested to withstand strong winds, but strong winds can be a factor in a turbulent journey. Read more: What is turbulence? Cross winds can also make take off and landing more challenging. So airports will impose limits if the wind is moving across the runway. Many airports have runways facing in different directions to mitigate against cross winds, allowing the pilots to use the runway that faces into the wind.

Obviously if combined with very heavy winds, it can cause extra considerations and challenges to flight planning — even a change of route or a delay if the conditions are extreme. But generally speaking, aircraft are very well-equipped to deal with a bit of the wet stuff!

Visibility is the key consideration of course. So some private jets do have windscreen wipers. Others particularly smaller aircraft have a high pressure air system, which blows rain off the windshield. And some manufacturers, including Gulfstream, use hydrophobic windshield coatings, which repel water, in place of wipers. Thunderstorm clouds or Cumulonimbus, are always known as CBs by pilots this is how they are abbreviated in pilot weather reports and the nickname has stuck.

CBs can be a factor in both hot and wet weather and often follow periods of very high temperatures. Private jets are well-equipped to deal with CBs. On departure they have faster climb rates and the ability to get above the weather, leaving airliners behind and below.

Then during the flight, less commercial and time pressure than airline pilots means the crew can take longer routes to fly around CBs. On landing, the agility and manouverability of a private aircraft allows a more flexible approach to the runway, avoiding bad weather on the approach path. They can also descend later and faster to keep out of the bad weather for most of your journey.

However no pilot of any aircraft will fly into a CB, so with safety always the number one priority, your flight may be delayed by CBs directly overhead your departure airfield. Refuelling of an aircraft is also forbidden with CBs in the vicinity, due to the risk of lightening strikes. For advice on any aspect of a private jet flight, or personalised pricing for a flight, contact our Flight Team 24 hours on Cookies are very small text files that are stored on your computer when you visit some websites.

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