> Yes but they were not flying at the heights and speeds that modern jet
> passenger aircraft fly at.
I don't know what is magic about 33K feet. Air pressure goes down with altitude.
This does several things.
As air pressure goes down, the differential pressure on the hull increases, but
by 33K much of the atmospheric pressure has already gone, so I don't see much
difference.
There would be reduced drag on the opening which would help the problem, but the
aircraft might be flying FASTER, would make the problem worse. This is an
unknown to me.
> Looking at this book on air disasters I have it seems that if it happens
> below 33,000 then the aircraft has a reasonable chance of surviving.
> Above that its a very low chance of surviving.
When you say aircraft, do you mean the plane or plane+passengers?
> But why 33,000? is that the height at which the air is simply too thin
> to breathe or are the stresses greater up there?
>
> TTFN
> Jim
BTW, NBC is reporting now that there may be 20,000 dead.
John
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 08 2001 - 10:58:58 PDT