Stratospheric Flight: Aeronautics at the Limit

ISBN-10: 1441994580
ISBN-13: 9781441994585
Category: Technology & Engineering
Pages: 215
Language: English
Published: 2011-06-28
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Author: András Sóbester

Description

In this book, Dr. Andras Sobester reviews the science behind high altitude flight. He takes the reader on a journey that begins with the complex physiological questions involved in taking humans into the "death zone." How does the body react to falling ambient pressure? Why is hypoxia (oxygen deficiency associated with low air pressure) so dangerous and why is it so difficult to 'design out' of aircraft, why does it still cause fatalities in the 21st century? What cabin pressures are air passengers and military pilots exposed to and why is the choice of an appropriate range of values such a difficult problem? How do high altitude life support systems work and what happens if they fail? What happens if cabin pressure is lost suddenly or, even worse, slowly and unnoticed? The second part of the book tackles the aeronautical problems of flying in the upper atmosphere. What loads does stratospheric flight place on pressurized cabins at high altitude and why are these difficult to predict? What determines the maximum altitude an aircraft can climb to? What is the 'coffin corner' and how can it be avoided? The history of aviation has seen a handful of airplanes reach altitudes in excess of 70,000 feet - what are the extreme engineering challenges of climbing into the upper stratosphere? Flying high makes very high speeds possible -- what are the practical limits? The key advantage of stratospheric flight is that the aircraft will be 'above the weather' - but is this always the case? Part three of the book investigates the extreme atmospheric conditions that may be encountered in the upper atmosphere. How high can a storm cell reach and what is it like to fly into one? How frequent is high altitude 'clear air' turbulence, what causes it and what are its effects on aircraft? The stratosphere can be extremely cold - how cold does it have to be before flight becomes unsafe? What happens when an aircraft encounters volcanic ash at high altitude? Very high winds can be encountered at the lower boundary of the stratosphere - what effect do they have on aviation? Finally, part four looks at the extreme limits of stratospheric flight. How high will a winged aircraft will ever be able to fly? What are the ultimate altitude limits of ballooning? What is the greatest altitude that you could still bail out from? And finally, what are the challenges of exploring the stratospheres of other planets and moons? The author discusses these and many other questions, the known knowns, the known unkonwns and the potential unknown unknowns of stratospheric flight through a series of notable moments of the recent history of mankind's forays into the upper atmospheres, each of these incidents, accidents or great triumphs illustrating a key aspect of what makes stratospheric flight aviation at the limit.

Get the book

Similar books

Animal Sciences: The Biology, Care, and Production of Domestic Animals, Fourth Edition
By John R. Campbell, M. Douglas Kenealy, Karen L. Campbell
Timberlake claimed in 1980 that a fundamental problem with Singer's work is the lack of an adequate definition of suffering ...
Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate
By Laura Lengnick
3. D. Layne. 2013. Tree Fruit: Protecting Your Investment. American/Western Fruit Grower, September/October. 4. R. Snyder and J. Melu-Abreu. 2005. Frost ...
Biodesign: The Process of Innovating Medical Technologies
By Stefanos Zenios, Josh Makower, Paul Yock
At that time, these were in the low $10s of millions. ... be a good partner going forward, even though it takes longer to get the deal done," offered Chess.
Advanced Signal Processing: A Concise Guide
By Amir-Homayoon Najmi, Todd Moon
[ 59 ] S. Kotz , T. J. Kozubowski , and K. Podgorski , The Laplace ... valued signal processing : The proper way to deal with impropriety , ” IEEE Trans .
Resources for Technical Communication
By Pearson Education, Pearson Education Staff, David P Pearson Education
Some documents are annotated; some are left without annotations to provide more flexibility for instructors. This booklet can be packaged at no additional cost with any Longman title in technical communication.
Chemistry: An Introduction to General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry; Chemistry Study Pack Version 2.0 CD-ROM; The Chemistry of Life CD-ROM;...
By Karen C. Timberlake
Chemistry: An Introduction to General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry; Chemistry Study Pack Version 2.0 CD-ROM; The Chemistry of Life CD-ROM;...
Poultry Science: Fifth Edition
By Colin G. Scanes, Karen D. Christensen
The emission rates for ammonia (Casey et al., 2006): • Layers: 116 g NH3 per AU (AU or animal unit or 500 kg). • Broilers: 135 g NH3 per AU (AU or animal unit or 500 kg). Emission rates in different reports vary from less than either 10 ...
Solid State Materials Chemistry
By Patrick M. Woodward, Pavel Karen, John S. O. Evans
[45] B.F. Hoskins, R. Robson, “Design and construction of a new class of scaffolding-like materials comprising infinite polymeric frameworks of 3D-linked molecular rods. A reappraisal of the zinc cyanide and cadmium cyanide structures ...
Abbreviations Dictionary
By Dean A. Stahl, Karen Landen
... Tallest Mountain Mount Robson—12,972 feet or 3,954 meters—in the Canadian Rockies Canada's Westernmost City Dawson, Yukon Canada's Westernmost Point in Yukon Territory just east of Alaska's Demarcation Point Canary Islands' Largest ...
Agriculture: A Very Short Introduction
By Paul Brassley, Richard Soffe
ACCOUNTING Christopher Nobes ADVERTISING Winston Fletcher AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION Eddie S. Glaude Jr AFRICAN HISTORY ... Hugh Bowden ALGEBRA Peter M. Higgins AMERICAN HISTORY Paul S. Boyer AMERICAN IMMIGRATION David A. Gerber AMERICAN ...