6 ms·

> you can't exactly fly through a thunderstorm. You can't, but can a UAV? I'm curious how much more tolerant of bad weather a plane can be if there are no peop

> you can't exactly fly through a thunderstorm. You can't, but can a UAV? I'm curious how much more tolerant of bad weather a plane can be if there are no people inside. Are storms often strong enough to knock a plane out of the sky?

ghayes 6y ago
Flying by instruments, I wonder how high the risk truly is. One of the bigger concerns might be an instrument failure, like the failure of the airspeed sensors on Air France 447.
- bfuclusion 6y ago
  Very very high. What fuels a thunderstorm is large amounts of air rising, and falling very rapidly. When the aircraft encounters those air movements it can very quickly exceed the structural limits of the aircraft.
  - usrusr 6y ago
    Some more detail: flying in rising or sinking air isn't a problem in itself, as long as you can tolerate the change in altitude. But flying from one into the other, fast, is a sure way to exceed structural load levels.
- sokoloff 6y ago
  There were many failures in the cockpit of AF447. Almost all of them were aft of the instruments.
  - juliansimioni 6y ago
    Problem exists between keyboard^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H yoke and chair
scoopertrooper 6y ago
The addition of people to the plane makes zero difference to storm survivability, why would it? Storms are definitely regularly large enough to bring down even large aircraft, it doesn't happen often because planes of systems on board to ensure they avoid such weather, but it can happen! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Airways_Flight_242 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Airways_Flight_242
rlpb 6y ago
> Are storms often strong enough to knock a plane out of the sky? Simply put: yes. Not just any thunderstorm. All thunderstorms. All aircraft avoid thunderstorms. It's not a case of discomfort for humans inside it; it's about the risk to aircraft themselves. Thunderstorms contain severe updrafts and downdrafts and huge windshear between them. Aircraft cannot outclimb the downdrafts so cannot maintain altitude inside them. And severe windshear will tear them apart. The only reason you don't hear about aircraft lost in thunderstorms is because pilots avoid them. All of them.
- m4rtink 6y ago
  A friend of mine who is a glider pilot once compared thunderstorm to a steamroller. If you get hit by the leading edge your plane will get smashed into the ground. If you somehow get to the back part, your plane might end up in the stratosphere, which might be just as fatal due to very low temperature and lack of oxygen. He mentioned some early gliding pioneers who were insane and lucky enough managed to "ride" a thunderstorm and achieve record breaking flight distance - and somehow not getting killed in the process.
- hamandcheese 6y ago
  So how do hurricane hunters survive? Are hurricanes less, for lack of a better word, volatile?
CPLX 6y ago
> Are storms often strong enough to knock a plane out of the sky? And then some. The forces in a run of the mill thunderstorm could rip the wings off a plane in seconds.

ghayes 6y ago

Flying by instruments, I wonder how high the risk truly is. One of the bigger concerns might be an instrument failure, like the failure of the airspeed sensors on Air France 447.

bfuclusion 6y ago
Very very high. What fuels a thunderstorm is large amounts of air rising, and falling very rapidly. When the aircraft encounters those air movements it can very quickly exceed the structural limits of the aircraft.
- usrusr 6y ago
  Some more detail: flying in rising or sinking air isn't a problem in itself, as long as you can tolerate the change in altitude. But flying from one into the other, fast, is a sure way to exceed structural load levels.
sokoloff 6y ago
There were many failures in the cockpit of AF447. Almost all of them were aft of the instruments.
- juliansimioni 6y ago
  Problem exists between keyboard^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H yoke and chair

scoopertrooper 6y ago

The addition of people to the plane makes zero difference to storm survivability, why would it? Storms are definitely regularly large enough to bring down even large aircraft, it doesn't happen often because planes of systems on board to ensure they avoid such weather, but it can happen! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Airways_Flight_242 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Airways_Flight_242

rlpb 6y ago

> Are storms often strong enough to knock a plane out of the sky? Simply put: yes. Not just any thunderstorm. All thunderstorms. All aircraft avoid thunderstorms. It's not a case of discomfort for humans inside it; it's about the risk to aircraft themselves. Thunderstorms contain severe updrafts and downdrafts and huge windshear between them. Aircraft cannot outclimb the downdrafts so cannot maintain altitude inside them. And severe windshear will tear them apart. The only reason you don't hear about aircraft lost in thunderstorms is because pilots avoid them. All of them.

m4rtink 6y ago
A friend of mine who is a glider pilot once compared thunderstorm to a steamroller. If you get hit by the leading edge your plane will get smashed into the ground. If you somehow get to the back part, your plane might end up in the stratosphere, which might be just as fatal due to very low temperature and lack of oxygen. He mentioned some early gliding pioneers who were insane and lucky enough managed to "ride" a thunderstorm and achieve record breaking flight distance - and somehow not getting killed in the process.
hamandcheese 6y ago
So how do hurricane hunters survive? Are hurricanes less, for lack of a better word, volatile?

CPLX 6y ago

> Are storms often strong enough to knock a plane out of the sky? And then some. The forces in a run of the mill thunderstorm could rip the wings off a plane in seconds.