Hi guys,
I am cruising across the pond to Gander with the Connie at the moment and I was wondering:
What was the purpose and advantage of bringing the airplane up to a high flightlevel back in the operating years?
Fuel saving couldn't be the real reason, right? According to the power setting charts and my basic piston-engine-physics-knowledge, fuel consumption of the piston engines increases in higher altitudes...
So was it simply to avoid weather and enjoy the view?
Looking forward to your insights!
Regards
Julius
What's the real advantage of high cruise levels?
What's the real advantage of high cruise levels?
Kind Regards,
Julius
Julius
Re: What's the real advantage of high cruise levels?
To quote the sage of propliner operations, FSAviator,
And from Tom Gibson,
http://www.calclassic.com/tutorials.htmWe can fly 1820 miles at low level in a DC-6B and take ten hours, or we can do it at FL220 and take seven. It is entirely our choice. We use the same amount of fuel either way, but our virtual airline does not pay us to arrive three hours late on every medium haul trip in a DC-6B. We are paid to fly the DC-6B with a drag of 182 KIAS at a velocity of 258 KTAS, in thin air, up at operational ceiling, not down at low level in thick air with a velocity of only 182 KTAS.
Nor are we paid to apply abusive power at low level to try to get the drag up to 258 KIAS. Abusive power forces an aircraft to fly noticeably nose down. Using the fuel to increase drag (IAS) is not a substitute for using it to increase velocity (TAS). Available excess power is used only to create climb power to reach the thinnest possible air.
And from Tom Gibson,
http://www.calclassic.com/propcomp.htmThe history of the competition among major types of US piston propliners is an interesting story of ever increasing speed and range. It was widely held that if a 20 minute difference existed on a given route, passengers would invariably book flights on the faster plane. Thus speed was the number one issue, followed by range - since non stop flights often got there faster than flights that had to stop. However, before the mid 1950's it was widely assumed that people wanted to get out and stretch their legs every few hours, so this was not such a selling point on domestic routes.
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Re: What's the real advantage of high cruise levels?
Wow, someone else beat me to referencing the Propliner Tutorial... Thanks!
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