How high in the sky can a plane really fly?

Question

I've always been intrigued to just how high they can go,

Is there a safety limit to how high they can fly or is there none?

Thank you so much for your help :)

Answer 1

Its the SR-71 Blackbird used by the yanks. It owns the "absolute altitude record" of 85,068.997 feet (25,929 m).[

Answer 2

The altitude limit for aircraft depending on several factors.

1. On how little oxygen can the engines run on?

2. How much lift can be generated from the thinning air?

3. Can the aircraft survive the turbulence of the jet stream and frigid temperatures?

4. Is the air humid or hot?

5. The aircraft design.

Altitude records:

*Space Shuttle techically beats all altitude records but is not included.

(A) Highest manned air-breathing airplane horzontal flight

SR-71--185,069 ft

(B) Highest flight by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

NASA built Helios--96,863 ft

(C) Highest flight by a rocket plane launched from another aircraft.

Spaceshipone- Built by scaled compsites--367,441 ft

(D) Highest manned air-breathing airplane following ballistic trajectory.

MiG-25--123,524 ft

(E) Highest rocket plane not launched from another airplane

Sud-Ouest Trident II--79,452 ft

Answer 3

It depends on the plane

Answer 4

3000 feet?

Answer 5

Technically the X-15 has the record with over 450,000ft, but it is a rocket and that is technically in space. Air is almost non existent up there, since at only 15k feet air is half as dense.

The Sr-71 holds the regular aircraft record at about 85k feet.

Most jet aircraft can reach that altitude in a zoom climb, but not many can sustain it. I have a retired F-16 pilot in my family and he told me that one of his guys came back and said his engine flamed out, and when they took out the flight recorder it indicated that he had zoom climbed to 80k feet and the engine flamed out. The engine supplies pressure to the cockpit, so he could have died if there had been a leak.

Answer 6

the crusing speed of a jumbo jet is 35.000 feet. our spy planes can fly at 70,000 feet.

Answer 7

I'm pretty sure there is a safety limit, but darned if I know what it is.

The only term I've ever heard is 30,000 feet, but I know they can go higher than that.  Sorry, I'm not much help.

Answer 8

Commercial aircraft normally cruise at around 32,000ft, Concorde's cruising altitude was 60,000ft.

http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/pages/conc...

Answer 9

Even the F104 has attained greater than 100k feet. Space suit not optional.

Answer 10

"Joseph A. Walker attained a speed of 4,104 mph (Mach 5.92) during a flight on June 27, 1962, and reached an altitude of 354,300 feet on August 22, 1963 (his last X-15 flight).

Answer 11

my R/C plane flys to 60 ft :):):):) lol

Answer 12

On 31.08.1977 a Mikoyan E 266-m aircraft flew at 123,523ft.

The Lockheed  U-2 has a service ceiling of 90,000 ft;the highest flying 'plane in current use.

Answer 13

the higher you go. the thinner the air gets - giving propeller driven aircraft nothing to get a bite on - thats why jets can fly higher

jets then get limited by the amount of oxygen available in the air [without O2, the fuel will not burn and the engines will flame out]

Rocket planes carry O2 as part of their fuel load but power to weight ratio makes them uneconomical for anything but experimental or space flight

also

the control surfaces have to have something to push against so control gets more and more difficult the higher you get

Answer 14

The higher an aircraft climbs the thinner the air becomes.

The Lockheed spy plane both flew close to it's stall speed and it's maximum structural speed, known as the coffins corner.

This is because as an aircraft climbs the IAS begins to drop even if it's ground speed is maintained.

The lockheed has a very low stall speed which means that it can  maintain lift at 40 knots.

As the lockheed climbs higher into thinner air and at around 70,000ft, the lockheed will maintain a high speed near to it's maximum structural speed and adequate lift at 40knots.

This also explains why passenger jet's fly at a high angle of attack during the cruise, even though it is cruising at around 400knots the airspeed indicator indicates 230knots and a mach speed in the 80 point.

Answer 15

I think the altitude record is in the area of 70,000 feet or something like that.....

Answer 16

u can go any where in sky...but u want to be alive..u cant go beyond troposphere....means 36000 ft to 44000 feet is the max altitude a comercial plane can take.

fighter and reserch plane take more hight but they take a max height of 70000 feet for geting a proper signal of radio and thus they can be in contact with ground..nai to....khula aasaman hai..where u will get lost there u will not know

Answer 17

it is the B-1 supposedly fly d**n near space for the big nuclear war with the Soviets..Our. president  and a few honchos then come on down check out what is left of the planet THEY say over 30,000 feet  ,,,they just are not going to give us the truth

Answer 18

The X-15 Plane can go around 100,000 feet.  The U-2 can go about 75,000 feet and the SR-71 max height has not ever been released, but is thought to go like crazy high.  125,000 feet sometimes.

Answer 19

Different types of planes have different operating envelopes.

The record for a propeller driven plan is 53,937 ft.

The record for a rocket plan is 69.6 Miles.

Answer 20

The question is  "How High and Safety ?" and that depends on what kind of airplane and equipment it has.  

Small Gas Engine propeller driven Airplanes  by design can not go as high as Jet Engine driven Airplanes.  

Typically, some but not all smaller Propeller driven Airplanes can go higher than 17,000 feet, but normally do not.  This is due to its limited mechanical design, efficiency, Safety and Federal Aviation rules.

Some but not all Jet driven Airplanes can go higher than 40,000 feet but normally do not because of design limitations, largely due to lack of atmospheric pressure,  efficiency, Safety and Federal Aviation rules.

60,000 feet is way out there bordering on outer space,  very few can go there!

A Safety consideration and altitude limitation is: after about 10,000 feet (about 2 miles)  begins the need for supplemental OXYGEN equipment

Answer 21

for a conventional (air-breathing engines) aircraft,the current record,which has yet to be broken,is attributed to the USAF SR-71,which,in July 1976 set an altitude of 85,068 feet,but may have exceeded this in preparation testing.Other records are crossing the Atlantic in 1hr 54minutes,and needing to turn round over the Netherlands,by the time it had slowed down to land at Farnborough.A speed record of 2,242 mph was set during this trip.The aircraft has now been officially retired,and is unlikely to ever see active service again,due to its specialized handling equipment,and running costs.....