How high can a typical small single propeller plane fly?

Question

How high can a typical small single propeller plane fly?

Answer 1

All aircraft have a service ceiling and depending on the engine (internal combustion or turbine) the service ceiling is different.  Small non-turbo charged internal combustion engines like in you car tend to degrade at 12,000 feet.  However if the aircraft has a turbo-charger installed the air entering the engine can be kept at sea level conditions and go a lot higher 20,000.  Some of the small single engine aircraft have been retro fitted with the Alison 250 turbine and cruse at 20,000 feet.

So as you can see it all depends on the engine to airframe combination.

Answer 2

Published ceilings for single engine airplanes run from 10,000 feet up to 20,000 ft or more.  The altitude record for a single engine airplane was set in 1968 using a turbocharged Cessna 210 to climb to 42,360 feet.

Nowadays there are single-engine turboprops that cruise in the 25,000 to 30,000 foot levels.  Lots of money is involved.

However, it is illegal to fly higher than 11,000 feet without oxygen, and there is no reason to climb to higher altitudes than needed in most small airplanes.

I fly an Aeronca 11AC Chief which has an 85 HP engine and a published service ceiling of 10,800 feet.  I frequently cruise at 2,500 or even 1,500 feet, depending on heading, per VFR altitude rules.  We like to watch those poor flightless slobs plodding along down below.

Answer 3

The published ceilings are not maximum authorized altitudes.  In cold air and with the plane lightly loaded it will climb thousands of feet higher.

Answer 4

It also depends on where you fly. The cessna 152 POH says 12,000 for the service ceiling,but here in Panama, I can only get up to about 10,000, but after almost an hour of climbing. This is because of the hot and humid air, that redices the density, thus climb performance.

Answer 5

it is the same concept as all of the a/c  the propller in the front bull the air as well as the aircraft and the a/c is constructed of one of the methods like every thing else airfoils (lift ,wieght,thrust,drag).

some singel engines flyies up to a celling of 30,000ft pressure alttiude and at 300 knots inducated at 26,000ft.e.g: TBM700,850 and the PILAUTAS PC12....ETC

Answer 6

i fly Cessna's and they can reach about 14,000ft, but there is no point in going that high, unless you want to either see the view for your self or just nose dive about 10,000 ft but be careful on how you recover from that and don't exceed the Vno

Answer 7

Printed service ceiling of the small aircrafts--like Cessna 152--is 14,000 ft.

Answer 8

at max, roughly 14,000ft but its common to fly at 2000ft

Answer 9

depending on the plane but about 15000ft

but you don't really fly that high

Answer 10

because of oxygen requirements and aircraft performance, most single engine aircraft will stay under 12,000 ft - the statement about 2,000 feet, somebody made  is incorrect