The Operating Environment and Aircraft Performance
The environmental factor that I chose to discus was humidity and its effect on aircraft performance. One way that humidity messes with airplanes is with the engines. The humid air has fewer oxygen molecules to burn per unit volume, therefore the engine produces less thrust in high humid air.
When you add 22% of humidity it increases the density altitude by 146 to 8592 feet. So at the average high humidity of 72%, the density altitude increases to 8926 feet from 480 feet.
Humidity will also affect the way an airplane flies through the air because of the change in pressure that will happen as the humidity changes. When the humidity increases the air pressure will decrease. This means the wings will have less air pressure to create lift for the airplane while flying.
References:
Udris, A. (2014, June 11). 3 Factors That Affect Density Altitude. Retrieved August 20, 2020, from https://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/performance/density-altitude/
Hi Steven,
ReplyDeleteI live in a place with high humidity all year round with an average of 84.2% humidity due to our tropical climate. According to your post, this would mean that aircraft flying across my country would experience flying with less oxygen in the engine and less pressure on its wings. I assume that would mean that that the aircraft would be flying with less thrust and lift due to the oxygen and pressure difference. In that case, flying in an area with higher humidity would be similar to when flying at a higher altitude on a standard day as high altitudes will have thinner air which produces the same results on aircraft performance. After reading your post, I am now curious about what this means for an aircraft taking off at my country. How would this phenomenon affect an aircraft's take off and landing at areas with varying humidity levels? How should the pilot react and do different geographical locations account for this factor when building their airports?
Overall a short and sweet post, cheers!
-SH