Can't the planes fly lower?

[doive1231]

What with the volcano in Iceland disrupting European flights, I was wondering if the planes could fly lower perhaps at 5000ft or lower to avoid the dust? If there's any probs they could then be closer to the ground and there's lots of airfields about.

Good luck to the rest of the world because the Eurozone economy will be knakcered if this continues.

 

[Ubrales]

More air space at 30,000 feet - do the math!

 

[Deleted member 217926]

What with the volcano in Iceland disrupting European flights, I was wondering if the planes could fly lower perhaps at 5000ft or lower to avoid the dust? If there's any probs they could then be closer to the ground and there's lots of airfields about.

Good luck to the rest of the world because the Eurozone economy will be knakcered if this continues.

Not only more airspace but fuel economy is a huge factor.

 

[strangestranger]

Yes, lower down, means thicker air which equals more air resistance which means more fuel used. Also, they would have to suspend small aircraft as different aircraft used different ceilings I believe.

 

[sturm]

The ash will also slowly fall to earth so even at 5000ft you could run into it.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

The obvious solution is to return to Zeppelins & Dirigibles . They ain't got no problem with ash - just a minor inconvenience with exploding hydrogen, is all..

 

[daship]

Lets see, the ground is covered in ash, so obviousy there is ash for 0 to 10000. You would have to go over, but there are limits to how high a plane can fly, Ice being a main one.

 

[Shadow703793]

The obvious solution is to return to Zeppelins & Dirigibles . They ain't got no problem with ash - just a minor inconvenience with exploding hydrogen, is all..

In this day and age, all zeplins are using Helium, not Hydrogen. IIRC, there hasn't been any zeplin crashes since the 1960s.

 

[HansVonOhain]

It is not the airlines that are stopping the air travel, it is government of nations that are affected by dust.

 

[Reynod]

This topic has been closed by Reynod