Who owns the airspace at 60000 feet?

In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has the sole authority to regulate all navigable airspace exclusively determining the rules and requirements for its use.



At 60,000 feet, the airspace is owned by the sovereign nation directly below it. According to the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, every state has "complete and exclusive sovereignty" over the airspace above its territory and territorial waters (which extend 12 nautical miles from the coast). While there is no international treaty that defines exactly where "airspace" ends and "outer space" begins, most countries recognize the Kármán Line (approximately 328,000 feet or 100km) as the boundary. Therefore, at 60,000 feet—which is roughly double the altitude of a commercial jet but well within the range of high-altitude spy planes and balloons—you are still firmly within national jurisdiction. Any aircraft or balloon flying at this height without permission is technically violating that country's sovereignty. Over the "high seas" (international waters), however, the airspace is not owned by any nation and is managed by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) to ensure safe global transit.

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As the federal authority over operations in all airspace and the regulating authority over operations, the FAA will ensure that the ETM cooperative vision aligns with agency goals and meets the requirements for safe and efficient operations.

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Vertical boundary There is no international agreement on the vertical extent of sovereign airspace, with suggestions ranging from about 30 km (19 mi)—the extent of the highest aircraft and balloons—to about 160 km (100 mi)—approximately the lowest extent of short-term stable orbits.

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The CAA is the controlling authority for the UK and NATS provides air traffic services for them.

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Upper Class E airspace operations refer to those that take place over 60,000 feet above mean sea level (MSL) in the National Airspace System (NAS). Operations in upper Class E airspace have historically been limited due to the challenges faced by conventional fixed wing aircraft in reduced atmospheric density.

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Class A airspace generally begins from 18,000 feet mean sea level up to and including 60,000 feet. Operations in Class A are generally conducted under Instrument Flight Rules and primarily used by higher performance aircraft, airline and cargo operators, etc.

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In the 1900s, Hungarian physicist Theodore von Kármán determined the boundary to be around 50 miles up, or roughly 80 kilometers above sea level. Today, though, the Kármán line is set at what NOAA calls “an imaginary boundary” that's 62 miles up, or roughly a hundred kilometers above sea level.

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Most commercial airlines that travel between East Asia and the Americas avoid flying over the Pacific Ocean due to high costs and safety concerns, such as the risk of flying during stormy weather.

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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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The semicircular rule (also known as the hemispheric rule) applies, in slightly different version, to IFR flights in the UK inside controlled airspace and generally in the rest of the world. The standard rule defines an East/West track split: Eastbound – Magnetic track 000 to 179° – odd thousands (FL 250, 270, etc.)

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Can you fly at 80000 feet? The US Air Force U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flies at 72 000 feet almost every day for many hours. The world's fastest manned aircraft, the SR-71, flew for many years at 80 000 feet and higher.

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