Service ceiling
The Service ceiling (engl. Service ceiling ) referred to in the aviation the height at which the maximum climb performance of the aircraft at maximum continuous power of the engine and maximum allowable total mass in propeller aircraft or 100 ft / min ( feet per minute) or 0.5 m / s, in jet aircraft it is still 500 ft / min (2.5 m / s) and in multi-engine aircraft it is still 50 ft / min (0.25 m / s) after an engine failure. Fixed-wing aircraft are still able to fly standard turns (25 ° to 30 ° inclination) without loss of altitude when they reach this altitude.
The weather conditions affect the rate of climb of the aircraft. The service limit always relates to the ICAO standard atmosphere , from which the expected performance for the actually prevailing conditions can be calculated.
For helicopters , the service ceiling refers to the forward flight. In the hover flight , the additional dynamic lift provided by the forward movement is missing , so that the hover altitude is usually well below the service ceiling. The attainable height at which a hovering flight is still possible is also called the “static peak height”. An example: The service ceiling of the NH90 helicopter is 6000 m, the hovering height is 2900 m with the ground effect and without it at 2355 m.
The service ceiling for modern single-engine light aircraft with piston engines without turbocharging is around 4000 m, for commercial aircraft around 12,000 m, for fighter aircraft around 15,000 to 19,000 m. The Lockheed SR-71 spy plane has a service ceiling of 24,385 m.
During the Second World War there were fighter planes with piston engines that could use compressors or turbochargers to compensate for the loss of power at high altitudes to such an extent that service heights of sometimes over 14,000 m were reached, such as the German Ta 152 aircraft or the Soviet Jak-9PD .
In comparison, stratospheric balloons can reach 30 km and more and the International Space Station orbits the earth at an altitude of 320 to 430 km.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Service ceiling. Aviationglossary.com, accessed February 5, 2013 .
- ^ Wilfried Copenhagen: transpress Lexicon aviation. Transpress, Berlin 1979, p. 144
- ↑ ISS altitude