High Flying

[crgb14]

In the film The Incredible Hulk near the end a fighter pilot flies really really high....how high could a jet like this fly before it stops?

Could it reach space??

[Clanad]

Although I didn't see the film, if the aircraft you reference was depicted as a modern, typical, jet fighter airplane (aeroplane in U.K.) the maximum altitude is around 60,000 feet (you do the math for meters) above mean sea level (MSL). Even at or near those altitudes the performance is severely degraded. Space, generally speaking, is somewhere above 100,000 feet...

[gen2]

The reason for there being an upper limit is that the fuel needs oxygen to burn. The higher you go, the less air and thus less oxygen there is. Consider the struggle climbers have to breathe on Mount Everest at only 29000 ft.

[Loosehead]

Clanad, It seems that yourself and a lot of US people are under the impression that we primarily use metric in the UK. Despite the efforts of the metric mafia, for everyday measures, we use imperial like yourselves, especially for distance and altitude.

Just thought you should know!

[Clanad]

Thanks, loosehead... I do notice you measure quantities though, using metrics... i.e., liters, etc. I did reference this quote: "The legal use of non-metric units is now limited in Britain to a few special fields, which have been summed up jokingly as "drinking and driving":

(Just what the heck is a hectare?)

[Hamish]

about 4 acers I think?

[Futurama]

Hectares are easy, they are a square 100 metres by 100 metres. Don't know why people bother with acres, 99% of people have no idea how big they are anyway.