Plane is perhaps one of the most brilliant and at the same time the most difficult to master human inventions. Therefore I would like to write a few interesting facts and secrets about them.
Inside the engine is explosive charges
Let's forget for a moment that all the wing filled with flammable fuel (yes, fuel is being held inside the wing). Each engine has one (sometimes two) explosive charge, known as pirozapal. Ironically, it is needed to ensure that the motor is not burned out. After the fire an explosive charge knocks sealed container in the engine, which is under a lot of pressure, and fire retardant chemicals extinguish any fire inside the engine.
Most aircraft are equipped with two charges, though, in theory, should suffice and one. But if something goes wrong, the second to win for a few precious seconds Plane - suddenly sit still. Fire-extinguishing systems in cargo compartments of aircraft operate on the same principle.
Your plane can be polurazbitym
Each airline wants its planes flew so often and transported at a time to as many people as possible. If the aircraft is not in the sky, it does not bring money. Therefore, when a plane for some reason can not fly, the airline is doing everything possible so that it flew again as soon as possible, but a full repair can take several hours or even days.
Breakdowns are not scary - coffee pot breaks or light. But how do you know that some detail is important so that the aircraft can not be without her climb into the sky?
The answer is in the document, known as CSI or "minimum equipment list" - the list is entered in any possible failure. He will let you know whether you need on this particular aircraft, and still in it is said that the pilots have to do if something goes wrong.
Worse is that the MIP allows the aircraft to fly, when only about half of the standard systems. Yes, it is still safe, but if the working half suddenly fails, then there is nothing to insure it. In the end, it was a senior pilot, he's the captain, decides whether or not to fly on this vessel. However, the airline can always hire another, less fastidious pilot.
In the middle of a busy summer season, the airline can not afford to send planes to repair, but it can always be postponed. This means that many aircraft are equipped with a lot worse than we would like.
The air flow from the engine
The air in the plane is not the same as the outside. At those altitudes, where flying commercial airliners, the air has the same composition (20% oxygen), and that on the ground. But the air is too rarefied for a person to breathe and remain conscious.
Engineers have found a solution - take the air from the engines: they are "concentrated" the air to fly, so that the passengers to breathe enough. Of course, the air inside the cabin is not quite the same as on the ground - in this case, there would be too much difference between the pressure inside the cabin and outside. So in most aircraft found a happy medium: the air you breathe in the cabin, on the ground can be at a height of 2400 meters.
There is a drawback to everything that passes through the engine is in the cabin. For example, in the event of a fire engine interior delayed toxic smoke, or smoke from antifreeze or toxic compounds from the combustion of lubricating oils.
Emergency decompression is much worse than you think
When the flight attendant asked to wear an oxygen mask on yourself before you rush to the aid of others, they are not joking. Air at high altitude is so rarefied that in case of decompression, your lungs will not be able to provide the brain with sufficient oxygen, so you lose consciousness after 35-40 seconds, depending on your health and the altitude at which the aircraft is located. At this time, you will feel the euphoria, dizziness, and finally lose consciousness.
It seems to be one minute without oxygen - it is very small, but to get the extra oxygen needed as soon as possible because of the possible side effects of lack of oxygen, for example, brain hypoxia.
Worse still, the air at high altitudes is very cold: the temperature is considered normal around -60 ° C..Decompression may be the reason that the body begins to break down, and there will be a visible mist, which, of course, many passengers plunge into a state of shock. So do not neglect the advice - just wear an oxygen mask, if that.
Oxygen masks are short-lived
Small yellow masks do not work the way most people think: you can assume that breathing pure oxygen as cool in the tank for diving, but it is not. Each set of four or five masks associated with the chemical generator - a piece of metal, flammable, once pulled in one of the masks. Combustion is the source of the oxygen that you breathe. This oxygen will stink of smoke, a little burn and have an unpleasant taste and odor.
Of course, the metal can not burn forever - the mask will stop working after about 12 minutes, during which pilots need to have time to go down to a height where you can breathe normally. In appendage to everything else in the mask no filters and it has failed, and that means that it does not protect you from any fumes or smoke in the cabin. But a little mask will help. The pilots also have full oxygen cylinders, so that they will be able to breathe normally for two hours, and possibly land the plane in case anything happens.
Inflatable ladders do not work as inflatables
If your plane crashed in the ocean, you have to take a warm and dry lifeboat - ideally. But next time before the flight, carefully read the safety instructions. If the figures of passengers on instructions swim alongside the boat or inflatable ladder, one hand on the board, and do not sit in it, then your ladder just topple over if someone tries to get inside. By law, most of the aircraft must be equipped with only emergency ladders to was just to get on the ground.
Furthermore ladder raft heavier than a simple inflatable ladder and carry so much extra weight aircrafts, flying mainly over land unprofitable. Even if the plane crashes near the shoreline to escape still easier than in the open sea. But there is good news - in transatlantic flights with aircraft on board is always a full inflatable boats.
Panic can be accessed via a bribe
After a loud crash in Manchester, which killed many people, the researchers set out to understand why this happened - to escape was so much more. Soon, however, researchers are faced with an obstacle - in all of the simulated situations, passengers were calm and polite, no one panicked, so that the evacuation went smoothly. In real life, people often panic takes hold.
It was necessary to make sure that people imitated this panic. How? Very simply, the researchers promised to give money to those who will be selected first. Quite a bit, about $ 30. It was enough to make the most average people started pushing and scrambling over the backs of other people's access. So researchers got their data, and they coincide with the number of the real victims - the cause of high mortality was just panic.
Portable electronic devices have no effect on the system of aircraft
Common sense prevailed: passengers around the world were finally allowed to use personal electronic devices at most stages of the flight. In some cases (poor visibility, low clouds, fog) aircraft used for navigation during landing signals from the ground, and there is a theory that mobile phones interfere with receiving these signals, and the plane can deviate from the course.
Of course, this is a good reason to turn off the phone for a while, is not it? But in favor of the theory there is no evidence. And then, is it a plane for several million dollars, you can simply be broken up using a mobile phone? In general, it's okay, do not need to disable it.
but mobile devices pilots really been the cause of accidents
This does not mean that cell phones have never been the cause of incidents with potentially lethal. The closer to the airport, and hence to the ground, the more dangerous it becomes flight. Unfortunately, the closer to the ground, the greater the probability that the mobile phone rings or the pilot suddenly begins to vibrate, that is, will distract the pilot at a critical moment.
Once the pilot because of the phone forgot the landing gear during landing. Another plane had barely time to take off - the pilot because of mobile phone ring tone was distracted and could not manage to perform the maneuver.
"Minimum fuel" - it's not as scary as it seems
Probably, you will not be too pleased to know that the vast majority of modern aircraft flights run by a minimal amount of fuel - if the fuel tank is more than necessary for the flight, the plane and uses it anymore, just to fly from point A to point B. Larger weight - more work for the engine. And the flight becomes more expensive.
But the "minimum fuel" does not mean that the airplane fuel just enough to suffice for the flight between origin and destination. According to the international rules of aviation on board should be fuel for the flight, and "free" fuel (quantity - 3-5% of the required). It is used in case of leakage or flight from point B to point C, B if for some reason it is impossible to catch. Typically, it is enough for 30 more minutes of flight.
