Auto Fun
15 Incredible Facts About Air Travel
Apart from the fact that traveling by air is the safest means of transportation especially here in Nigeria, there are a number of us who don’t know about air travel. Let’s find out .
1.Busiest Airport
The world’s busiest commercial airport is Hartsfield-Jackson Airport (ATL) in Atlanta, with 970,000 airplane movements a year. It’s followed by Chicago (ORD), London (LHR), Tokyo (HND) and Los Angeles (LAX).
2.”Smoke” Trails
Those white lines that planes leave in the sky are simply trails of condensation, hence their industry 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. It’s basically the same reaction as when you see your breath when it’s cold outside.
3.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 thing that the flight attendants don’t 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. The pilot will respond to a loss of pressure situation descending to an altitude below 10,000 feet, where passengers can simply breathe normally, no extra oxygen required. That rapid descent usually takes way less than 15 minutes, meaning those oxygen masks have more than enough air to protect passengers.
4. The Safest Seat In A 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.”
5. Just In case Sango Strikes The Plane ?
Planes are designed to be struck by lightning—and they regularly are hit. It’s estimated lightning strikes each aircraft once a year—or once per every 1,000 hours of flight time. Yet, lighting hasn’t brought down a plane since 1963 due to careful engineering that lets the electric charge run through the plane and out of it, typically without causing any damage to the plane.
6. Powerful Tyres
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.
7. Too Many Airports
One third of the world’s airports are in the USA. That’s pretty crazy considering the US only has about 4.4% of the world’s population.
8. In Case Village People Decide To Poison The Pilots
Many airlines have a rule that each pilot flying the aircraft eats a different meal, in order to minimize the risk of all pilots on board being ill. This makes a lot of sense, and we’re very grateful for the smart people who thought of this.
9. Sue Anybody !
An investment bank which lost 75% of its employees in 9/11 sued American Airlines for negligence in allowing terrorists on board, and won $135 million.
10. America Again
In the U.S. alone, there are as many as 7000 flights in the air at any one time.?
11. Unlimited Ticket
In 1987, a man bought a lifetime unlimited first class American Airlines ticket for $250,000. He flew over 10,000 flights costing the company $21,000,000. They terminated his ticket in 2008. So worth it.
12. Badoo Pilot
On July 23, 1983, Air Canada’s Flight 143, with 69 people on board, ran out of fuel at an altitude of 41,000 ft. The pilot managed to glide the plane down safely as he was a very experienced glider pilot. 22,300 pounds of jet fuel had been put in instead of 22,300 kg. A Boeing 747 can glide for two miles for every 1,000 feet of altitude.
13. This Could Have Been The First 9/11
In 1994 a passenger was killed by a bomb on a Philippine Airlines flight. This led Philippine police to discover a plot to blow up 11 US airplanes in 48 hours over the Pacific. In another incident, which the Philippine authorities shared with the FBI in 1995, Philippine terrorists had planned to fly airplanes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The terrorists were eventually caught.
14. Super Safe Airline
El Al airlines of Israel is considered one of the most secure airlines in the world. They equip their planes with anti-missile defense systems and there is an undercover air marshal on every international flight.
15. Super Flight Attendants
Flight attendants are technically responsible for all the lives on board the airplane. Because of this they undergo special training including, first aid including the delivery of a baby, hand to hand combat for self defence and defence of the airplane, and survival skills for the rare case of crash landing in remote locations.
Learnt something ?
