Many people are unaware that there is a relationship between the temperature, height and weight of an aircraft, but this is very close and essential to carry out any flight, so this simple relationship will especially affect many actions taken by managers of the flight.
The temperature
Nowadays, when the warming is in everyone’s mouth, which every year increases the temperatures in the different cities where the airports are located and many of them are created in places where the temperatures are extreme, you must know the relationship between the aircraft performance and the temperatures in order avoid major failures that could lead you to a disaster. That means power plants, wingsprofile, lift values as airplane drag and air density
Aircraft engines work with heat so if the temperature increases outside they will have a higher temperature, thereby affecting the maximum powers that the engine can produce, so it must have a longer runway to generate a speed equal to lower temperatures.
The height
Due to the higher the air density decreases we would also have problems for takeoff, this is because the wings of the plane no longer produce the same lift that the aircraft would have in ideal conditions, it would also affect the engines either propeller or turbubofan, this is because it should generate more power to compensate for the lack of air density.
Taking this into account we would say that at higher altitudes we would have less power in the engines, which lies in having less force to take off; We must also talk about the speed of takeoff because having less density we would need a higher speed to produce the same lift as at sea level, and if thanks to global warming we add higher temperatures we would have more problems for takeoff and landing.
The weight
It is the only variable that the pilot has to be able to carry out the flight without problems, this is due to the fact that some tables, called performance tables, are made on the plane, where depending on the height and temperature a certain weight can be loaded, therefore if we are at sea level and the temperature is low, more weight can be loaded, but if the temperature rises we must decrease the weight of the plane.
This is the relationship that exists between temperature, height and weight in an aircraft, and that is why non-essential loads should normally be left on the ground at the time of boarding, be it a baggage or an extra load carried on the aircraft, due to the passengers who pay for the flight must be taken and the fuel cannot be reduced either because the quantities are already established for the flight to be made. If you want you can read our previous article titled Aircraft operations at high flight altitudes
What do you think about this topic? Do you want to know more about the relationship between weight, temperature and height?
If you want to know more about this you can contact us or write your query at the bottom (comments section).
Image by Gellinger via Pixabay.com under creative commons license.
