What's the real advantage of high cruise levels?

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Boeingman
Airman
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Joined: 21 Jun 2017, 02:49
Location: EDTQ

What's the real advantage of high cruise levels?

Post by Boeingman »

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
Kind Regards,
Julius

flapman
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Joined: 10 Oct 2013, 21:35

Re: What's the real advantage of high cruise levels?

Post by flapman »

To quote the sage of propliner operations, FSAviator,
We 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.
http://www.calclassic.com/tutorials.htm

And from Tom Gibson,
The 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.
http://www.calclassic.com/propcomp.htm

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CAPFlyer
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Joined: 03 Mar 2008, 12:06
Location: Wichita Falls, Texas, USA

Re: What's the real advantage of high cruise levels?

Post by CAPFlyer »

Wow, someone else beat me to referencing the Propliner Tutorial... :) Thanks!
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