How high do planes fly??

Question

what is the average altitude of an airplane?

Answer 1

30,000 to 40,000 feet for civilian aircraft.

SR71 would fly around 90,000 feet when over its target.

The F104 got up slightly over 100,000 feet in an altitude test.   They called it the "manned missile" due to its monster engine and small wings.  

Answer 2

The general rule of thumb for most aircraft is that the higher they fly, the more efficient they are, so most pilots will fly as high as the aircraft will allow.

Unpressurized aircraft are typically limited to 10,000 to 12,500 feet. Higher than that the air pressure is too low to allow the body to absorb a sufficient amount of oxygen without risk of eventually losing consciousness.

Pressurized aircraft (or unpressurized aircraft with oxygen systems) are able to go higher. Most piston engined aircraft will fly between 12,000 and 18,000 feet, though some can go as high as 22,000 feet or higher. Turboprop aircraft will fly anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 feet, again with some able to go higher than that.

Most airliners using turbofan engines, as well as business jets, will fly between 25,000 and 40,000 feet. A few are able to go even higher than that. The Concorde would gradually climb to around 59,000 feet as it burned off fuel during its flights, and I believe the SR-71 Blackbird can reach 65,000 feet. I do not recall what the maximum altitude for the U-2 is.

Answer 3

unpressurized planes will fly below 10,000 feet because above that, there is not enough oxygen for the average person.

higher airplanes fly, higher the efficiency because of lower air resistance

Turboprops fly generally at around 28,000 feet but the operational ceiling on certain ones go up to 35,000 feet.

turbofans on your typical commercial jet will operate best at around 40,000 feet. Typical cruising altitude will be between 30,000 and 43,000 feet for these aircraft. (Limited by the pressure difference between in outside and the inside of the plane.

Short haul flights (less than an hour flight time) generally stick to lower altitudes like 28,000 feet.

The SR71 flew at 80,000 feet. U2 was the plane that flew at 65,000 feet. Gary Powers was the pilot of the one shot down over the former USSR.

The Concorde would initially cruise at 50,000 feet and go up to 60,000 feet as it used gas. It could go higher but it was limited by regulations because the time it took to descend to a breathable altitude (10,000 feet)in an decompression situation was too great.

Specially modified military jets have gone up to 100,000 feet plus for short amounts of time. (20 minutes max)

aircraft on a VFR (visual flight rules) flightplan cannot go higher than 18,000 feet. (these would be your typical private leisure flight)

IFR (instrument flight rules) flightplanned aircraft fly under the direction of ATC and usually stay above FL180. all commercial flights are IFR.

Answer 4

Not Pressurized: 10-15,000 feet

Pressurized commercial aircraft: 30,000 feet

CRJ-700 Regional Jets: 30-35,000 feet

Boeing 737: usually travel around 37,000 feet

Boeing 747: You travel around 45,000 feet

Answer 5

A typical flight lasting longer than 35mins will cruise at about 35'000ft, some airlines have different rules, also some aircraft manufactures have different rules.

Commecial

A 737-300 = Max Cruise 39'000ft

although

A 767-300 = Max Cruise 41'000ft

General Aviation

Cessna = 5'000ft  

Piper  = 8'000ft

Its also depends on fuel.econmy.route.time

but even some flight lasting 2 hours or longer still cruise at 23'000ft its just what flight level is available for the route

Answer 6

around 40,000 ft

Answer 7

Most of the airliners are between 30,000 and 40,000 feet at their cruising altitude.

Answer 8

Around 35-40 Thousand feet.

Answer 9

between 0-40 thousand feet. Depends which plane for the lowest number at cruising altitude. But around 28000 for the minimum. (give or take a couple thousand)

Answer 10

30k ft. depends on if it is a commercial or private planes and there are different altitudes that planes are allowed to fly at

Answer 11

Hello there, it depends by the aircraft type , the aircrafts of aviations total flight level is 38.000 ~ 41.000 feet that means 9.000 ~ 11.000 klm over of sea level