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In his latest gaffe, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney lamented the fact that airplane windows don't roll down.
Romney's wife Ann's plane had to make an emergency landing Friday (Sept. 21) because of an electrical malfunction. Discussing the incident at a fundraiser the next day, he said: "When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go, exactly, there's no — and you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem. So it's very dangerous."
Here's why they don't do that. Gravity tends to keep air molecules concentrated near the ground, so the atmosphere thins out as you go up. The air becomes so thin at 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) or so that airplane cabins must be pressurized above that altitude to prevent occupants from suffering from hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. Because temperature and pressure go hand-in-hand (i.e. low-pressure air feels cold), pressurization is also necessary to keep cabins sufficiently warm.
At 35,000 ft. (11,000 m), the typical altitude of a commercial jet, the air pressure drops to less than a quarter of its value at sea level, and the outside temperature drops below negative 60 degrees Fahrenheit (negative 51 degrees Celsius), according to The Engineering Toolbox. Exposed to such conditions, you would quickly die.
Pressurization is normally achieved by pumping the cabin with "bleed air," or compressed air sucked in and heated up by the plane's turbine engines. Pressurization only works in an airtight fuselage. Were you to open a plane window, the compressed air inside would rapidly rush out, atmospheric conditions inside and outside the plane would equalize, and everybody would die.
Plane windows that roll down would therefore be, in Romney's words, "a real problem."
In his latest gaffe, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney lamented the fact that airplane windows don't roll down.
Makes sense to me.
I've been flying since 1971 and hold a commercial pilots license with instrument and multi-engine rated. Also have basic and instrument flight instructors certificates and I have flown pressurized aircraft.
Nothing scares me more than an inflight fire and while it has never happened to me my first thought if it did was to get on the ground as fast as I could. Hardly matters where, just get on the ground. Rather than the 100% chance of burning up in the air I would take my chances landing on an LA freeway if that was my only option.
I doubt Romney was talking about standard roll down windows like you would find on a car but why not some windows that would open, even pop out, once the airplane was on the ground?
Ever see an airliner burn? They go up in seconds and it would be nice if every row had an emergency exit so to speak.
Is this doable, can it be done? Anything is doable if there is enough money.
Of course the left will do whatever they can to spin this into a gaff when all it was was musing about how to make travel safer.
Now imagine what would have been said if Woodrow Wilson had suggested air bags for automobiles? Yep, he would have lost the election for sure!
Nothing like emergency windows to let the smoke out. Who wants to die breathing in smoke sitting on an airplane? Raise your hand. the democrats>
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