Why Airplanes Have A Speed Limit

In an airplane, there are different types of speeds in which the airplane flies. You have your normal operating speed, your stall speed, your never exceeding or max speed and you have a maneuvering speed.

As a Pilot, you have to be well aware of the space you are traveling in and pay attention to these air speeds, especially your stall speed and maneuvering speed. If you were to find yourself flying in turbulent air. It is recommended that you slow the airplane down and operate the airplane at the recommended maneuvering speed. Meaning, don’t go as fast as you were going. Because the airplane is made of materials that can be damaged if hit by too much pressure than it can take.

[davidclark]

It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were flying than in the air wishing you were on the ground. I like your videos.

[mojogrip]

At 1:58 I said Vno is your normal operating speed. That is incorrect. Vno is actually the Maximum Structural Cruise speed of an airplane NOT the normal cruising speed.

[Raging.Geekazoid]

"With great speed comes great responsibility."

[speedomars]

Va = Design maneuvering speed. The speed above which any full application of any single flight control could generate a force greater than the aircraft's structural limitations. Aircraft structural limits are categorized as: NORMAL, UTILITY, ACROBATIC, AND COMMUTER. Normal and Commuter G-loading limits are: −1.52 to +3.8. Utility: −1.76 to +4.4. Acrobatic: −3.0 to +6.0. As you might guess a Normal category aircraft is about HALF as robust as an acrobatic plane and therefore has much lower Va speeds.

[flyman]

Wrong. As a CFI I see and hear this common misunderstanding between Manuvering Speed or Va and Maximum Structural Crusing Speed or Vno a lot.

Manuvering Speed (Va) is the maximum speed at which you can make full and abrupt deflection of the flight controls. Manuvering speed changes with weight. This is why you don't see Va depicted on airspeed indicators- it's a moving target.

Maximum Structural Cruising Speed (Vno) is the maximum speed you can operate in smooth air. Vno is depicted where the green arc (Normal Operating Range) on the airspeed indicator turns to yellow (Caution Range). You can fly into the yellow arc such as while descending but should do so in smooth air and with caution.

You also said warm air always rises. This is wrong too. Google temperature inversion. You will have this all corrected by the time you reach the commercial pilot level. Fly safe!

[mrphilbert]

There is one more factor to consider called laminar flow. Jets at altitude have to fly inside a flight envelope. To low and it will stall of course but too high and you break up the laminar flow over the top of the wing and lift diminishes. The higher you go, the smaller the envelope.

[emosmurf]

saw a ww2 YT vid interviews with pilots that had fought german bombers, and one mentioned in one dive his fighter failed to maneuver out of a (500+ kt) dive. the plane held, but the sonic pressure wave ahead of the wings removed air flow over his wings and ailerons. colder air near the ground saved him, but he mused that many pilots had experienced it, and we may have broken the sound barrier a lot earlier!

[extremereclusefallows]

A good example could be clearly seen when the twin engine airplane crashed in LA two weeks ago. The plane entered a dive increasing the airspeed beyond structural limitations thus tearing the plane apart.

[jmwSeattle]

There’s a ton of pilots that can’t explain this stuff anymore after they’ve got their wings and that’s something these know-it-all-CFIs won’t admit. All most pilots remember is in turbulence slow down. One of the greatest pilots ever forgot about mountain waves and got killed up in the Sierra Mtns. An astronaut flew his private plane into a thunderstorm and got killed. Knowing Vno and Va didn’t help him there. You’re a skilled AND talented videographer. Keep it up. Great interview with the Zenith builder a couple back. I know, I have a degree in journalism.

[MrTjmk]

This makes alot of sense but I have ask a round about question. I'll use a firearms analogy.

Generally speaking a rifle of a given caliber is built to withstand the amount of internal pressure that the specific caliber is rated at. Because manufacturers know that there will always be those who push the safety envelope on the various calibers that rifles are chambered for they will deliberately over-engineer those rifles to withstand substantially more pressure than they are rated for just to mitigate the possibility of said rifle/caliber blowing apart if someone attempts to shoot overpowered rounds through it.

Just like the manufacturers of air planes in your description, they will still advise you to adhere to maximum speed rates or pressure rates and not go beyond that even though the rifles have been built to withstand being able to shoot or fly faster in order to push the performance envelope to try to get more velocity.

I suspect that even with airplanes the manufactures have built in a sort of safety net by allowing their planes to withstand substantially more abuse than they are said to be rated for but for safety's sake they stipulate a certain speed max and no more. It's a sort of "Lawyer-Proofing"
for their product line.

[turboromy]

Anyone know what it means to have Va greater than Vne ? (It doesn't make sense to me) One such plane I clearly remember was Berkut (Long EZ grown up). I remember discussing it with my CFII and he wanted to stick with course material back then.

[ferrarikingdom]

if you're hitting your head during turbulence your belts are too loose

[davidmcgovert]

I an a private pilot and I LOVE YOUR UTUBE CHANNEL, YOUR AWESOME 👍🏻🤓

[thisismagacountry]

Because we don't have the dilithium crystals for the Warp engines yet.

[sceudue]

I'm not a pilot..to old i gues to get the licence. Seing you talk about flying makes me still want to go and get it...hahahaha. I think i'll keep flying rc airplanes. I like your video!

[FloralExperiencescom]

Great info we follow all your vids can you instruct new pilots yet ?

[mcanning]

Thanks Mike, Good common sense explanation of Air Speed in Turbulent Environment.

[johnthompson]

I can honestly say, no flight instructor I ever had sang backup for course mine were all WW2 something few pilots remember!

[nggdsb]

Wrong VNE is what the aircraft structure can handle.

[xman]

You're extremely knowledgeable about flying and aviation. Can you please say "thinGs" instead of "thiNs."