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>> In the old days, an explosive decompression incident on a >> commercial airliner put you at about 30 000 ft; today it may well put >> you at 50 000 ft > >Minor nit: It will still put you at 25,000-35,000 feet. Commercial airplanes >don;t fly much higher than that, although they occasionally go up to FL38 >(38,000 feet). > This is true for commercial aircraft although, I do not believe that the reason is their abilities to fly that high. The largest reason for not routinely flying that high is the lack of radiation shielding from gamma rays from outer space. Although this radiation is still low, it is still much higher than at lower altitudes and over time can build up a sizable and hazardous radiation dose for the flight crews. Adding shielding to the plane would make it heavier and less effecient. - Andy Andrew W. Potter Internet: awpsys@ri*.is*.ri*.ed* Associate Director Bitnet: awpsys@ri*.BI* Data Center Operations & Technical Support Information Systems and Computing Rochester Institute of Technology, P.O 9887, Rochester NY, 14623 (716) 475-6994
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