If you fly a lot, you’ve been through the routine countless times. But have you ever stopped to wonder why planes climb so steeply on takeoff, to the point where you feel like you’re on a roller coaster?
Photo Credit: Unsplash, Martin Widenka
The answer, as you might have guessed, is for practical reasons. Planes are at their most efficient when they are at their cruising altitudes, so pilots do their best to ascend sharply to around 35,000 feet – cruising altitude – as fast as possible. Once at altitude, they want to stay up there cruising until it’s time to make that final descent.
Photo Credit: Unsplash, Sebastian Grochowicz
Because the airlines and pilots have to keep customer comfort and other plane traffic in mind, the pilots can’t even take off as steeply as they’d like to cause, obviously, that ain’t gonna…fly…