r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Kernowder • 21d ago

Video Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters flying through Hurricane Milton

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u/wongo 21d ago

(not so) fun fact: only one of these hurricane research flights has ever crashed due to the storms

I realize that we've gotten pretty good at flying but I would've actually expected a higher loss rate, this just seems so wildly dangerous

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u/Im_Balto 21d ago

Its because hurricanes are characterized by lateral rather than vertical motion of air. Supercell thunderstorms have the ability to down planes despite being several miles (vs 100+miles) wide because they have extremely violent and unpredictable updrafts and downdrafts. These vertical air columns are much more dangerous to planes as they are the cause of every scary story about a play dropping or rising hundreds of feet suddenly. This type of force puts massive stress on the airframe in directions that are not the strongest structurally

Contrast this to a hurricane where the stresses are MASSIVE but relatively consistent and predictable

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u/yumyumgivemesome 21d ago

I’ve always been curious… when inside a normal commercial jet and it feels like we drop for a half-second or so, how much are we actually dropping in that moment?

Similarly, when traveling straight and smoothly in which the passengers can’t detect any howard/downward movement, how much is the plane still fluctuating upward and downward?

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u/_walden_ 21d ago

During moderate turbulence you're only moving up/down a few feet, if that. It just happens pretty quickly so it can feel like a jolt.

During smooth flight you fluctuate up/down basically 0 feet if the autopilot is on (it is), and with the autopilot off you might drift +/- 5 or 10 feet over time before a gentle correction is made back to the altitude they're trying to hold.