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Do commercial planes fly higher than Mount Everest?

If you've traveled by air, you know that sometimes it inspires frustration and questions. Planes cruise almost 7 miles high in the sky. That's 7,000 feet higher than Mount Everest. A major reason for flying at that altitude is money.



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Most flights are intended to spend as little time as possible over water, since storms are more common over the ocean than on land. An aircraft would not be safe to fly over the Pacific Ocean due to the stormy weather and frequent lightning strikes that occur there.

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Because of its vast size, crossing the Pacific Ocean requires a staggering quantity of fuel. However, most commercial aircraft do not fly directly over the Pacific Ocean; instead, they choose what are known as 'curved paths'. These paths offers a faster, more efficient route given the curved nature of the earth.

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The primary reason airplanes don't fly over the Pacific Ocean is because 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.

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The speed record is also held by an SR-71, at 2,193 mph. This is not as high or as fast as the airplane can fly, however, it's absolute speed and altitude limits are classified. Most US military aircraft can exceed 50,000 feet, if they really really try. Again, the limits are classified.

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In fact, the plane is so fast that one of the F-16 pilots who escorted Air Force One to Washington on 9/11 recalls having to speed up to catch up with it. Air Force One also flies high — it can reach a maximum altitude of 45,100 feet, which is far above than the usual cruising altitude for commercial flights.

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Hurricane-force winds and frequent snowstorms are obstacles Wish it were that simple. Except for one gentleman, Didier Delsalle, a French test helicopter pilot who was able to pull off the stunt on May 14, 2005, none others have dared to make an attempt as the chances of succeeding is zero.

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Because the Earth is a three-dimensional sphere and not merely a two-dimensional flat, East-West surface. Because of this spherical shape, often times the shortest distance is flying more north and south, up over the Northern latitudes and the North Pole, rather than flying east/west over the Pacific.

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Different airplanes have different maximum altitudes, depending on their construction. For example, the Airbus A320 has a maximum altitude of 39,000 feet (11,900m) and the Boeing 747 45,000 feet (13,700m).

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Question: What is the highest altitude an airplane can fly? Answer: The highest commercial airliner altitude was 60,000 feet by Concorde. The highest military air-breathing engine airplane was the SR-71 — about 90,000 feet. The highest airliner flying today reaches 45,000 feet.

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Whether flying at night or during the day, pilots need to see some kind of horizon. They use this to determine the airplane's attitude. At night pilots will turn their gaze from outside to inside and use the artificial horizon. The artificial horizon is normally a simply globe split into two hemispheres.

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Flight above 40,000 ft
We still can take a deep breath and fill our lungs (still 1 liter capacity), but we are filling them with oxygen at such a low density (because oxygen density is nearly equal to the air density outside of the oxygen mask) that there are too few oxygen molecules to keep us alive.

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The middle layer usually has a tiny hole in it to get rid of condensation. The inner pane basically safeguards the load from the passengers during flight. When both the outer and middle panes break, then all the pressurization in the airplane would escape leading to decompression in the passenger cabin.

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What is the longest flight in the world by distance? The longest flight in the world by distance is New York (JFK) to Singapore (SIN) on Singapore Airlines clocking in at 9,537 miles. What plane can fly the farthest in the world?

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