What happens when a plane tries to fly higher than it was designed for? My friend says it will stall and thats it,, true or false?

Question

What happens when a plane tries to fly higher than it was designed for? My friend says it will stall and thats it,, true or false?

Answer 1

It is a two part question, with two answers!



If you consider a relatively slow aircraft, such as a C172, or even a King Air for that matter, the answer is that it won't really happen. As the aircraft climbs the engines start to lose power with decreased air density.



Since climb is a function of excess power, you need more power than is required just to stay airborne, you reach a point where there is not enough power to keep climbing, so the aircraft simply stops climbing. If you try to increase lift by raising the nose, you increase drag and the aircraft descends.



In a high speed aircraft, such as a B747, as you climb into thin air the true airspeed increases, but, with reduced air density, the indicated airspeed decreases and gradually can decay to stalling speed.



However Critical Mach number is a function of true airspeed and you can come to a point where the indicated airspeed is at stalling point but true airspeed is at critical mach number, slow down and you stall, go faster and you exceed critical mach. This is the so called ''Coffin Corner''.



So your friend is half right, but there are other factors which come into how high an aircraft can go, such structural considerations of maximum differential pressure, (the maximum difference between cabin pressure and outside pressure), differential cooling of the engines, (where power is so low, due to reduced air pressure, the hot and cold sections of the engines expand or contract out of limits) as happened with Pinnacle 3701.



So in practice no sane pilot would ever push his aircraft that hard.

Answer 2

It CAN stall. If a plane goes way too high then yes, it will stall.



The reason aircraft have maximum altitudes (service ceilings) is so that the pilot is aware which altitudes are efficient and safe. If an altitude is too high for a plane, drag will worsen and the plane will lose its rate of climb. This can but won't necessarily cause the plane to stall. Service ceilings are a guideline to tell pilots not to climb higher as (s)he won't be able to ascend any higher. Similar to how you cannot go higher than the ceiling in a room.

Answer 3

First, a minor semantic correction. Planes can't try, but the pilots flying them can. Otherwise it's like saying your car tries to make an illegal u-turn.



Next, assuming that you understand the difference between an aerodynamic stall and an engine stall, a pilot can indeed cause an aerodynamic stall by trying to make an aircraft exceed its absolute altitude limit. Since I've experimented with this a bit in small aircraft myself, I can tell you that it's possible to exceed it for a short time with careful flying but the laws of Newtonian physics catch up with you rather quickly and you either let the aircraft sink back down or you will indeed stall. It's not a pleasant feeling actually since the controls tend to feel mushy and not very effective. The sort of feeling you get if you try to stand up in a canoe.

Answer 4

It just "falls back" to its maximum achievable altitude.



You see, the ceiling of an aircraft is the combination of several factor:

- jet engine thrust reduces with increasing altitude and increasing speed

- lift from a wing drops as density decreases (and density drops as a function of altitude)

- the speed of sound reduces as a function of temperature (the colder the air, the lower the speed of sound, and temperature drops as altitude increases)



The combination of those is that, as altitude increases, an aircraft has to either fly at a higher angle of attack to compensate for the density reduction and keep lift the same as the aircraft weight; or to fly faster.

But a higher angle of attack is usually accompanied by a disproportionate increase in drag. And flying faster is limited by the onset of buffet, the vibrations that appear when flying close to the speed of sound which, as was mentioned before, getting lower just as one wants to fly faster. Moreover, flying close to the speed of sound will make some part of the airflow above the wing go supersonic, which will incur a sharp increase in drag.

But at the same time, flying faster and higher reduces the thrust available form the engines, so the plane cannot really fly any faster.



The maximum altitude a plane can fly is a result of design choices. The plane is limited by the laws of physics, and it just cannot exceed them.

The maximum altitude is usually the one the plane could reach with less than 300 feet per minute climb speed. Fly at that maximum altitude and you could climb a little still, but that would take forever; the plane has simply ran out of reserve power.



So, your friend is *somewhat* (although not completely) correct. The plane could *gently* stall and recover at its real maximum altitude.

Answer 5

Every plane is differant..

While stallling is a possiblity if a plane gets to high. It is not the only limiting factor. Most planes are restricted by other factors as well. .

air pressure,

temperature,

cabin pressure

weight of the aircraft

The higher engines go, he less air is available to them so a plane simply may not have enough power to climb any higher

Answer 6

Light planes simply "stop climbing" any further -

I operate L-21 Super Cubs - They do not get any higher than about 16 to 18,000 feet -

Lack of engine power (manifold pressure) with O.320 engines -



Airplanes with powerful engines (jets as an example) wings could stall if too heavy -



The "ceiling" of an airplane is a certification - 45,100 feet as an example for a 747-200/300 -

That is a certification limit (cabin altitude not to exceed 8,000 feet) -



But at maximum weight, a 747-200 cannot climb much higher than some 32,000 feet -



High performance jets have two speed limits = called "buffet speeds" -

The 747's and other commercial jets have such speed tables -

One is a regular "low speed" buffet (stall speed) -

The other is a "high speed" buffet, at which airplane would exceed the Mach number red line -

In cruise, airplanes are flown as close to as the middle of the low speed and high speed buffet -



Some people refer to that narrow speed margin as the "coffin corner" -



With a commercial jet, pilots try to fly airplanes at some 2 to 3,000 feet below maximum flight level -

That is often the most economical level, using normal cruising speed -

With a 747-200 if the maximum level for a weight is FL390, pilots try to cruise at FL360 or 370 -



WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN AIRPLANE FLIES ABOVE THE MAXIMUM LEVEL



Here is my contribution to "Airliner's Net" many years ago -

I used to be B-727 captain and familiar with an illegal procedure common to fly "higher" -

TWA 841, a B-727 which was flown with trailing edge "Flaps 2" and L/E slats retracted...



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_841_(1979)



http://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=731303

Answer 7

Well... yeah, at some point its gonna do that. The higher you go, the less oxygen there is in the atmosphere, if you were to try to fly a plane into space it would inevitably stall because the engine needs enough oxygen to properly burn the fuel/air mixture. Too little oxygen means the engine wouldnt function properly, thus stalling the engine.



Same with a car engine, you need oxygen for them to operate. And at higher and higher altitudes, there is less and less oxygen.

Answer 8

No. To obtain maximum altitude, you would maintain the best climb airspeed (Vy), which is typically 1.2 to 1.3 times stall speed. The service ceiling of an aircraft is defined as the altitude where full power and the best climb airspeed gives a climb rate of 100 fpm.

Answer 9

engine runs on gas in order for gas to burn you need oxygen higher you go lower oxygen high altitude jets are designed to run on low oxygen. Less oxygen in the engine less and less power until engines stop and it's just unburnt fuel coming out of the exhaust which is kindda dangerous but yes they will stall losing altitude until there is more oxygen again.

Answer 10

False.

It will wear faster and the parts will be less reliable. It will probably be fine for a few flights before it starts to fail.



If you do regular checkups and maintenance you should catch those problems and pull your conclusions.



But why risk it?

Answer 11

stall or not, if you try to keep climbing eventually there won't be any excess power left to do so. weight matters; as fuel burns off, one can climb higher. some

Answer 12

The pilot will pass out or the engine will quit, both due to lack of oxygen.

Answer 13

True. That altitude airspeed combination is called the coffin corner.

Answer 14

they go into coffin corner. then the highest speed of the airplane equal to the stall speed of the airplane.

Answer 15

it stalls, then you recover.

Answer 16

Hey "Skipper" you want to take this one??