You Probably Didn't Know This About Planes

Aviation has some weird limitations that no one even thinks about for example if you ever wondered why the engines are placed under the aircraft's wing do you know why you must turn off your phone during a flight if you're wondering where the giant tank of oxygen is kept that'll help you breathe in case of an emergency there isn't one the oxygen in the mask is created by something called a chemical oxygen generator they ask you to pull down on your mask because you activate the firing pin on the generator commencing the chemical reaction the oxygen you breathe will have a burning smell but that's normal typically the oxygen supply will last for 15 to 20 minutes during this time Pilots must descend to an altitude where there is breathable air usually around ten thousand feet and no The Masks will not drop in the case of fire that'd be like trying to put out a fire with an oxygen tank airports often have to come up with ways to scare off birds as there are 13 000 airplane bird strikes annually in the U.S he'd be these feathery guys off the airport is crucial for the birds and for a plane safety some airports replace the grass with gravel and fill in nearby ponds with dirt this way the birds have no reason to stay others use pigs you heard that right the airport in Salt Lake City uses Hogs that eat Gull eggs but Virginia's Reagan National Airport has come up with the coolest way to scare away Birds they use an electric Cannon to fire blanks into the air and scare off the birds in France some airports have giant LED screens with googly eyes so if you're ever traveling to France and see these the French are not mocking you they're trying to keep you safe we understand how jet engines work but how do pilots start them first they turn on the battery switch the battery will start the epu or auxiliary power unit once the Apu is online the pilot activates the Apu generator by pushing a button the electrical panels then send electricity to the electronic engine controls to start the engine the Apu provides the pneumatic power needed to start the engine following this the pilot selects to use only fuel from one tank so they turn on the left fuel tank switches if we look inside the engine now the start valve will be activated by pneumatic pressure eec gets the start signal and the power to operate eec opens the start valve the pressure goes to the air starter which then drives the accessories gearbox this gearbox rotates the drive shaft which is connected to the transfer gearbox this gearbox begins to turn the core and once this Begins the air is successfully sucked through the core the core then activates the outer fan and the engine starts if you don't turn off your phone during takeoff and Landing will the plane crash to this day no plane is crashed with someone using their phone during takeoff or Landing while the plane might not blow up if you text your mom you still have to turn it off you see the equipment inside the cockpit uses the same radio frequencies as your tablet laptop or smartphone so using it could interfere with the measuring devices in the cockpit these tools tell Pilots how far they're off the ground when Landing or taking off from the runway a Boeing 747 crew almost crashed because something or someone was interfering with the signal this incident happened in January 2017 and they never found the culprit but please tell your girlfriend you love her after takeoff if you look at modern day planes most of them have their engines beneath the wings some airplane manufacturers choose to place the engines in the back of the plane but they are rare most of the time the engines are placed under the wings there are two main reasons airplane engines are placed under the wing one ease of Maintenance two larger capacity the closer the airplane engine is to the ground the easier it'll be for maintenance Crews to perform ritual tasks like oil changes standing on the ground that's easier and more efficient than using special equipment to reach the engines in the back of the plane the second reason has to do with the durability of the airplane wings when engines are placed under the wings they can be much bigger than those placed on the tail of the engine it's common to see four or six engine aircraft for the engines under the wing but it's rare to see a four engine plane with the engines located at the back of the plane not only will Engineers have to reinforce the tail to support the extra weight it also looks unnatural another benefit of placing the engines under the wings is to add weight wings are flexible they Bend upward while flying adding weight to them will make bending them up more difficult and safer even during severe turbulence one of the strongest Arguments for placing engines under the wings is fire damage it's not uncommon for the airplane engine to catch on fire mid-flight so by having the airplane engines under the wings the fire would not be in direct contact with the cabin making it safer for passengers if the airplane engines caught fire and were on the tail of the aircraft the fire would directly impact the cabin and endanger the lives of passengers the new general electric ge9x engine is the most expensive in the world General Electric developed this engine while working with Boeing for their new airliner the 777x right now the price per engine stands at around 42 million dollars the price will inevitably go up in the years to come not surprisingly the most expensive engine in the world is also the most powerful engine said to be capable of replacing two regular engines on an aircraft the engine was rated at 110 000 pounds of thrust but when trying to break the Guinness World Record the ge9x reached a maximum thrust of 134 thousand pounds and broke the previous record holder we know that the bigger the engine the more efficient it is but if that's true why don't we build an engine and find a way to place the passengers on top of it Well turns out there's a cap to the diameter of a jet engine a jet engine is comprised of two parts the jet core and the fan at the front the jet core activates the fan which then sucks in a lot of air pushing most of it around the core and only a small part of it directly through the core the core compresses and lights that air on fire creating propulsion but despite their power they are inefficient because they're so powerful they waste a lot of kinetic energy in the form of hot air that's what you see on fighter jets but when you put a giant fan on the front then the engine is more efficient however if the engine is too big it'll create drag after strenuous calculations scientists have discovered that a plane engine's ideal width is around 13.1 feet or 4 meters if you've ever sat near the wing of an airplane then you would have noticed the flaps on the back of the wing there are four of them and they usually move during flight if you've landed during the day then you've probably noticed there are an additional two that extend when Landing simply put their spoilers but there's a difference if they're deployed during takeoff they're called flight spoilers if they're deployed when Landing they're called Ground spoilers and there are three reasons these exist first because there are three types of hydraulic systems on an airplane hydraulic system a b and standby spoilers 2 4 9 and 11 are controlled by hydraulic system a while spoiler numbers three five eight and ten are controlled by hydraulic system B if one of these hydraulic systems fails then there are two others to back it up that being said the pilots will not be able to deploy the spoilers controlled by the malfunctioning system affecting the aircraft's landing distance the job of the ailerons is roll control when the airplane wants to roll to the left or right it'll activate the ailerons and the spoilers reducing the lift on the wing which causes it to dip allowing the airplane to turn second the pilots used the spoilers as speed brakes so look out the window whenever you feel a little turbulence mid-flight you'll notice that the spoilers on both wings are activated Pilots do this by pulling a lever in the cockpit allowing them to decelerate this is usually done when the distance for landing is reduced air traffic controllers usually advise Pilots to do this mid-flight the third reason there are spoilers on aircraft is for landing as soon as the aircraft has a touchdown the wheel breaks slow it down but the spoilers do two other important things first they create drag and second they slow down the aircraft even further allowing the plane to stop very quickly bye for now

Channel: Beyond Facts

Views: 11,592

Keywords: beyond facts, airplane secrets, aviation, planes, flight, secrets

Id: CfuUFI0p4aU

Length: 8min 32sec (512 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023