h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

it all equals out that you use less fule if you go up high so they make more money

BH is right about flying high to avoid the weather. At temperate latitudes commercial aeroplanes can fly in the lower ends of the stratosphere. This is a much more stable part of the atmosphere, there is typically none of the convection that happens in the troposhere, and hence no sudden up and down movements and cups of coffee flying everywhere.

The answer is (1).

Q: Why do planes fly so high?
A: Because they can, of course!

Why not fly higher then?

Concorde and other similar very high speed planes used to fly at about twice the height of modern planes, but they had other problems.

Once, on a flight from Bangkok to Perth, Western Australia, the pilot came on the intercom to say that due to a considerable tail-wind, the flight was not only way ahead of schedule but also would have way too much fuel to land 'safely'

So, to avoid making the passengers flying on to Adelaide wait at the terminal AND dumping fuel off the coast of Fremantle, the plane descended so low over Monkey Mia (several 100kms north of Perth) that I could tell a van from a sedan as the plane arced at a snails pace - first clockwise, then anti-clockwise... so passengers on both sides could see the view!

perhaps not quite as exciting as the barrel (or aileron) roll of Alvin M. "Tex" Johnston's prototype Boeing 707 ( http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=390 ), but pretty damn

Of course, nothing as rash and unplanned(as the article implies) would be allowed nowadays. The media, let alone the company's president would be given months or even years notice, that the manoever was planned

Is it just me, or have all spontanious and potentially dangerous activities been banned in these safety over-concious and litigious times

In a similar incident to six7s', I remember a flight from London to Dublin on a Sunday evening in summer, when there was no other air traffic around so the pilot didn't have to keep to the normal corridors. He decided to go straight from London to Wicklow, then flew up the coast, providing a running commentary on the view, and tilting the plane to one side or the other to give passengers a better view.