Earth’s atmosphere has four distinct layers, as well as a rarefied outer layer that can extend as far a 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) from the planet in the absence of solar wind. The lowest atmospheric layer is the troposphere, and the layer just above that is the stratosphere.

Unlike the troposphere, the stratosphere actually gets warmer the higher you go! That trend of rising temperatures with altitude means that air in the stratosphere lacks the turbulence and updrafts of the troposphere beneath.

The stratosphere is a layer of Earth’s atmosphere. It is the second layer of the atmosphere as you go upward. The troposphere, the lowest layer, is right below the stratosphere. The next higher layer above the stratosphere is the mesosphere.

The troposphere is the lowest level of Earth’s atmosphere. This is because air is thicker at lower altitudes, requiring commercial jets to expend more energy to “push” themselves through the skies. In the troposphere, however, the air is thinner, thereby making commercial flights more fuel efficient.

Due to lower resistance at higher altitudes, commercial aeroplanes can keep moving forward with minimal fuel expenditure. A balance between operating costs and fuel efficiency is achieved somewhere around 35,000 feet, which is why commercial aeroplanes usually fly at that altitude.

If an airplane flies in space, it won’t be able to suck in fresh air with which to supply its engines, resulting in loss of propulsion. The bottom line is that airplanes can’t fly in space because there is no air in space. Airplanes rely on air to produce both lift and propulsion.

45,100 ft

According to USA Today, the common cruising altitude for most commercial airplanes is between 33,000 and 42,000 feet, or between about six and nearly eight miles above sea level. Typically, aircraft fly around 35,000 or 36,000 feet in the air.

Even if the engine failure had occurred over water while en route to Hawaii, the aircraft likely could have landed safely. Wide-body aircraft like the Boeing 777 are rated to fly for more than five hours on a single engine.

Yes it can. A twin-engine aircraft can fly perfectly well on only one engine. In fact, it can even continue the take-off and then safely land with just one engine. Losing an engine in flight is not usually a particularly serious problem and the pilots are given extensive training to deal with such a situation.

Can an Airplane stand still in mid-air? Technically, it is possible for an airplane to hover for a few moments, but only in the rarest of circumstances. If weight and lift cancel each other out at the same exact time that thrust and drag cancel each other out, the plane would hover until one of these variables changed.

Flying at a typical altitude of 36,000 feet (about seven miles), an aircraft that loses both engines will be able to travel for another 70 miles before reaching the ground.

How cold is it up there? The higher you get, the colder it gets, up until 40,000 feet. If the temperature at ground level was 20C, at 40,000 feet it would be -57C. At 35,000 feet the air temperature is about -54C.

Blue ice, in the context of aviation, is frozen sewage material that has leaked mid-flight from commercial aircraft lavatory waste systems. Airlines are not allowed to dump their waste tanks in mid-flight, and pilots have no mechanism by which to do so; however, leaks sometimes do occur. …

You can get stuck on a plane toilet if you flush while sitting down. You can get stuck, but only if your body forms a perfect seal on the vacuum toilet. This is difficult to do. Adam Savage of “Mythbusters” tried it out, and despite serious suction, got up without a problem.

From the lavatory, the waste travels through the plane’s pipes to the rear of the plane and remains in a tank that can only be accessed from the exterior of the plane — pilots can’t clear the tanks during the flight. The tank is emptied by special service trucks once the plane is safely on the ground.

The traditional method of disposing human waste from trains is to deposit the waste onto the tracks or, more often, onto nearby ground using what is known as a hopper toilet. This ranges from a hole in the floor to a full-flush system (possibly with sterilization).