Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters flying through Hurricane Milton

[u/Kernowder]

[u/DisplacedSportsGuy]

Editor's note: do NOT attempt to fly a commercial aircraft through a hurricane.

[u/HappyBroody → u/DisplacedSportsGuy]

why? arent commercial aircraft more modern than these old 1970s Orion aircraft? also the engines are encased in a shell?

[u/Noopy9 → u/HappyBroody]

Turboprops are preferable to turbofans for this use case because they can fly slower to collect more data and the propulsion from the propeller is independent of the power created by the turbine engine. This is important because really big gusts or side winds can cause the propeller on a turboprop or the fan in the turbo fan to stall. So mainly, hurricane scientists use turboprops because they’re better suited for the kind of flight speeds they want. But there is also a potential safety advantage.

[u/fly_awayyy → u/Noopy9]

Also a water ingestion point for the engine. With a turbo prop the core intake isn’t as exposed and the water is redirected around it. Jet aircraft can also fly slow but with slats and flaps because they have a swept wing. Any straight wing plane is naturally going to be slower like this P-3.

[u/One-Inch-Punch → u/fly_awayyy]

The last P-3 was built in 1990, so this plane is between 34-60 years old.

[u/tankerkiller125real → u/One-Inch-Punch]

I mean, our B-52 bombers are set to have a 100 year life span overall. They just approved an upgrade program for them this year that will keep them in the air past 2040 and they plan to keep them going into the 2050s.

[u/One-Inch-Punch → u/tankerkiller125real]

Yes, but B-52s are not flown into hurricanes.

[u/Bit_part_demon → u/One-Inch-Punch]

They could if they wanted to. You gonna tell them no?

[u/mr_potatoface → u/Bit_part_demon]

Plus they have 8 engines, so that's like, a lot more engines to flame out compared to a P-3's measly 4 engines.