11 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Airplanes

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11 Things You Probably Didnt Know About Airplanes
Presented by Lindsay Green
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Table of Content

• Introduction
• Airplanes are designed to withstand lightning
  strikes
• There is no safest seat on the plane
• Some airplanes have secret bedrooms for flight
  crew
• The tires are designed not to pop on landing
• Why cabin crew dims the light when a plane is
  landing
• You dont need both engines to fly
• Why there are ashtrays in the bathrooms 
• What that tiny hole in the airplane window does
• Why airplane food taste so bad
• About those oxygen masks
• Why planes leave trails in the sky
• Contact Us

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Introduction

• Planes have changed a lot since the days of the
  Wright Brothers (or, perhaps more
  accurately, Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos). 
• Those first wood-and-cloth contraptions are an
  entirely different species than the sleek Boeing
  Dreamliners of today.
• With the continual advancements in aerospace
  technology, it's hard to keep up with all the
  amazing things planes today are capable of doing
  (and withstanding).
• Below, 11 things you didnt know about airplanes
  and air travel.

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Airplanes are designed to withstand lightning
strikes

• Planes are designed to be struck by lightningand
  they regularly are hit.
• Its estimated lightning strikes each aircraft
  once a yearor once per every 1,000 hours of
  flight time.
• Yet, lighting hasnt brought down a plane since
  1963, due to careful engineering that lets the
  electric charge of a lightning bolt run through
  the plane and out of it, typically without
  causing damage to the plane.

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There is no safest seat on the plane

• The FAA says there is no safest seat on the
  plane, though a TIME study of plane accidents
  found that the middle seats in the back of the
  plane had the lowest fatality rate in a crash. 
• Their research revealed that, during plane
  crashes, the seats in the back third of the
  aircraft had a 32 percent fatality rate, compared
  with 39 percent in the middle third and 38
  percent in the front third.
• However, there are so many variables at play that
  its impossible to know where to sit to survive a
  crash. 

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Some airplanes have secret bedrooms for flight
crew

• On long-haul flights, cabin crew can work 16-hour
  days.
• To help combat fatigue, some planes, like the
  Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliners, are outfitted
  with tiny bedrooms where the flight crew can get
  a little shut-eye.
• The bedrooms are typically accessed via a hidden
  staircase that leads up to a small, low-ceilinged
  room with 6 to 10 beds, a bathroom, and sometimes
  in-flight entertainment.

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The tires are designed not to pop on landing

• The tires on an airplane are designed to
  withstand incredible weight loads (38 tons!) and
  can hit the ground at 170 miles per hour more
  than 500 times before ever needing to get a
  retread.
•  Additionally, airplane tires are inflated to 200
  psi, which is about six times the pressure used
  in a car tire.
• If an airplane does need new tires, ground crew
  simply jack up the plane like you would a car.

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Why cabin crew dims the light when a plane is
landing

• When a plane lands at night, cabin crews will dim
  the interior lights.
• Why? In the unlikely event that the plane landing
  goes badly and passengers need to evacuate, their
  eyes will already be adjusted to the darkness.
• As pilot Chris Cooke explained to TL Imagine
  being in an unfamiliar bright room filled with
  obstacles when someone turns off the lights and
  asks you to exit quickly.
• Similarly, flight attendants have passengers
  raise their window shades during landing, so they
  can see outside in an emergency and assess if one
  side of the plane is better for an evacuation.

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You dont need both engines to fly

• The idea of an engine giving out mid-flight
  sounds frightening, but every commercial airplane
  can safely fly with just one engine.
•  Operating with half the engine power can make a
  plane less fuel-efficient and may reduce its
  range, but planes are designed and tested for
  such situations, as Popular Mechanics reported.
• Any plane scheduled on a long-distance route,
  especially those that fly over oceans or through
  uninhabited areas like the Arctic, must be
  certified by the Federal Aviation Administration
  (FAA) for Extended-range Twin Operations (ETOPS),
  which is basically how long it can fly with one
  engine.
• The Boeing Dreamliner is certified for
  ETOPS-330, which means it can fly for 330 minutes
  (thats five and a half hours) with just one
  engine.
• In fact, most airplanes can fly for a
  surprisingly long distance with no engine at
  all, thanks to something called glide ratio.
• Due to careful aeronautical engineering, a Boeing
  747 can glide for two miles for every 1,000 feet
  they are above the ground, which is usually more
  than enough time to get everyone safely to the
  ground.

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Why there are ashtrays in the bathrooms

• The FAA banned smoking on planes years ago, but
  eagle-eyed passengers know that airplane
  lavatories still have ashtrays in them.
•  As Business Insider reported, the reason is that
  airlinesand the people who design planesfigure
  that despite the no-smoking policy and myriad
  no-smoking signs prominently posted on the plane,
  at some point a smoker will decide to light up a
  cigarette on the plane.
• The hope is that if someone violates the smoking
  policy, they will do so in the relatively
  confined space of the bathroom and dispose of the
  cigarette butt in a safe placethe ashtray, not a
  trash can where it could theoretically cause a
  fire. 
• If you do smoke in the bathroom, expect a massive
  fine.

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What that tiny hole in the airplane window does

• Its to regulate cabin pressure. 
• Most airplane windows are made up of three panels
  of acrylic. 
• The exterior window works as you would
  expectkeeping the elements out and maintaining
  cabin pressure.
• In the unlikely event that something happens to
  the exterior pane, the second pane acts as a
  fail-safe option.
• The tiny hole in the interior window is there to
  regulate air pressure so the middle pane remains
  intact and uncompromised until it is called into
  duty.

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Why airplane food taste so bad

• Airplane food has a bad reputation, but the food
  itself isnt entirely to blame--the real fault
  lies with the plane. 
• A 2015 Cornell University study, reported
  by Time, found that the environment inside an
  airplane actually alters the way food and drink
  tastes--sweet items tasted less sweet, while
  salty flavors were heightened.
• The dry recycled air inside the plane cabin
  doesnt help either as low humidity can further
  dull taste and smell making everything in a plane
  seem bland.
• About those oxygen masks
• The safety instructions on most flight include
  how to use the oxygen masks that are deployed
  when the plane experiences a sudden loss in cabin
  pressure.
• However, one that thing that the flight
  attendants dont tell you is that oxygen masks
  only have about 15-minutes worth of oxygen.
• That sounds like a frighteningly short amount of
  time, but in reality that should be more than
  sufficient.
• Remember, oxygen masks drop when the airplane
  cabin loses pressure, which means the plane is
  also losing altitude.

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Why planes leave trails in the sky

• Those white lines that planes leave in the
  sky are simply trails of condensation, hence
  their technical name of contrails.
• Plane engines release water vapor as part of the
  combustion process.
• When that hot water vapor is pumped out of the
  exhaust and hits the cooler air of the upper
  atmosphere, it creates those puffy white lines in
  the sky.
• Its basically the same reaction as when you see
  your breath when its cold outside.

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Table of Content

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