Why does the 787 fly so high?

Flying higher gives lower fuel burn if you can get up there, so airlines take advantage. There are of course weight, wind and temperature dependencies, so every flight is different. The 787 and A350 also have a higher service ceiling compared to 777 and A330.



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Commercial planes fly between 35,000 and 43,000 feet. This is usually the most optimal flight to create lift. Aircraft are generally around 7 miles above the ground traveling at nearly the speed of sound. The higher a plane flies, the thinner air surrounding it becomes.

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This high aspect ratio wing design combined with efficiency enhancing raked wing tips allow the 787 to be one of the fastest commercial aircraft (Mach 0.85 cruise speed) while consuming less fuel than today's comparably sized aircraft.

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There are no specific regulations governing civil aircraft operations beyond the altitude of 60,000 feet. Nevertheless, certain exceptional aircraft like the Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144 have managed to ascend to altitudes of FL600 (equivalent to 60,000 feet).

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A: No commercial or business airplane flying today can exceed 100,000 feet. Special rocket-powered airplanes can fly over 100,000 feet to gather data, but they are specially designed for it.

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The 787's latest problem mirrors production issues discovered over 2020 and 2021 that included improperly fitted shimming that led to paper-thin gaps between surfaces on the Dreamliner's fuselage.

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Smoother Ride Technology: Sensors on the 787 sense and dampen turbulence for a more comfortable ride and less motion sickness. Large overhead bins: There's space for your carry-on near your seat. Better seating options: The 787 offers the latest in seat comfort and technology.

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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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Aerodynamic altitude: If a commercial airliner flies too high, it will encounter less dense air passing over the wings to create lift. This can cause the plane to stall and fall out of control. Depending on the weather conditions and aircraft weight, this can occur anywhere between 40,000 and 45,000 feet.

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As of October 2023, the 787 program has booked a total of 1,843 orders and made 1,093 deliveries while recording zero fatalities and no hull losses.

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As Boeing examined its 787 production, certain defects came into focus: improperly sized shims that fill tiny gaps between sections of the airplane body, known as the fuselage, and variations on skin flatness in certain sections of the interior of the fuselage.

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The Dreamliner is a successful aircraft, still in production with more than 1600 delivered or on order. The list price for a new Boeing 787-8 is $239 million dollars. Yet even as international travel opens again for these long-range aircraft, two Dreamliners barely ten years old are waiting for the wrecker's ball.

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For a rough estimate, most jet airliners takeoff and land at , roughly, 140–150 mph. Of course we deal with knots, but for a “civilian”, 150 mph. Has the 787 Dreamliner been a success for Boeing and its customers?

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The typical lifespan of airliners The composite-driven Boeing 787 Dreamliner is designed for 44,000 flight cycles. These jets can theoretically last several decades with an average of two flight cycles a day.

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The carbon-fibre structure of the 787 allows the aircraft to be pressurized to a much higher level than on many other aircraft types. The lower the cabin altitude, the better you feel both during and after the flight, allowing your body to adjust to your new time zone more quickly.

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The sweet spot of flying is regarded as between 35,000 and 42,000 feet (the airline industry still uses feet and inches as its standard measurements) – too high and the oxygen becomes too sparse to fuel the engines, too low and the air resistance is greater.

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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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