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The outer edges of the diagram, the envelope, show the possible conditions that the aircraft can reach in straight and level flight. For instance, the aircraft described by the black altitude envelope on the right can fly at altitudes up to about 52,000 feet (16,000 m), at which point the thinner air means it can no longer climb.
The aircraft Mach number at which these effects appear is known as its critical Mach number, or M CRIT. The true airspeed corresponding to the critical Mach number generally decreases with altitude. The flight envelope is a plot of various curves representing the limits of the aircraft's true airspeed and altitude. Generally, the top-left ...
When the weight of the aircraft is at or below the allowable limit(s) for its configuration (parked, ground movement, take-off, landing, etc.) and its center of gravity is within the allowable range, and both will remain so for the duration of the flight, the aircraft is said to be within weight and balance. Different maximum weights may be ...
Hence, the aircraft will not have any excess capacity to climb further. Stated technically, it is the altitude where the maximum sustained (with no decreasing airspeed) rate of climb is zero. Compared to service ceiling, the absolute ceiling of commercial aircraft is much higher than for standard operational purposes.
An aircraft is streamlined from nose to tail to reduce drag making it advantageous to keep the sideslip angle near zero, though an aircraft may be deliberately "sideslipped" to increase drag and descent rate during landing, to keep aircraft heading same as runway heading during cross-wind landings and during flight with asymmetric power.
China Airlines Flight 006 damaged by going outside its flight envelope to gain control after a drop of 3,000 m in 20 seconds. Flight envelope protection is a human machine interface extension of an aircraft's control system that prevents the pilot of an aircraft from making control commands that would force the aircraft to exceed its structural and aerodynamic operating limits.
Energy–maneuverability theory is a model of aircraft performance. It was developed by Col. John Boyd, a fighter pilot, and Thomas P. Christie, a mathematician with the United States Air Force, [1] and is useful in describing an aircraft's performance as the total of kinetic and potential energies or aircraft specific energy.
A flight envelope diagram showing V S (Stall speed at 1G), V C (Corner/Maneuvering speed) and V D (Dive speed) Vg diagram. Note the 1g stall speed, and the Maneuvering Speed (Corner Speed) for both positive and negative g. The maximum “never-exceed” placard dive speeds are determined for smooth air only.