why cant planes fly straight into space?

Answer 1

Their speed isn't fast enough to escape earth's gravity.

Answer 2

A lot of these people are partially right. There are numerous reasons as to why a normal aircraft cannot just 'fly into outerspace'. These reasons include, but are not limited to the following:

1)The speed required to break free of the earth's gravity is so great that the amount of friction the aircraft would recieve upon exit and re-entry from the earth would literally burn the aircraft. This is why the space shuttle has all that special tiling, and the reason it has specified exit and re-entry angles.

2)The air is so thin at that altitude that a typical jet engine would not have any air to compress, and would therefore just literally shutoff. Most jet engines can run in air up to about 50,000 ft, give or take.

3)The amount of fuel to reach the speed would be ludicrous, and this is given that the aircraft could even reach that speed - as everything in this world has what is called a 'terminal velocity'. Once that speed is hit, the object can go no faster due to the numerous laws recognized by Newton.

**In response to Isaac A's answer above, an aircraft has technically conquered the earth's gravity as soon as it has reached it's V1 speed (takeoff), however this is more commonly known as lift, and gravity still has a play on the aircraft, given the fact that if the engine's were to shut off - the plane would still fall to the earth. Lift is a different concept than defying gravity**

Answer 3

Planes CAN fly straight into space, but we haven't developed any that can do so yet. However, NASA has been slowly researching the necessary technologies in order to accomplish this goal. The project has gone by various names, such as the "Spaceplane" and the "SSTO" (single stage to orbit) vehicle.
The biggest problem is speed, since orbital velocity is ~18,000 miles per hour, or ~Mach 25, which requires huge amounts of energy and thus huge amounts of fuel. Also at these speeds, heat shielding is necessary and such shielding tends to weigh a lot. However, it is well known that most of the propellant weight of a rocket or space shuttle is the oxidizer, so if it were possible to use the air for most of this need, as planes do, then that would be a substantial step forward.
NASA has been researching these issues since the early 1980s, although major funding for this project was cut in the early 90s. Nevertheless, NASA flew an unmanned "scramjet" airplane a year or two ago, and it was able to achieve ~Mach 10 for ~10 minutes and was said to have performed "flawlessly". In another 20-30 years a real "spaceplane" may well be built and flown, using scramjet technology. Once such a plane is developed, spaceflight will become as routine as airline travel is today. Furthermore, it will be possible to fly to any point on Earth in 90 minutes or less!! And vacationing on the Moon or Mars may be next.
I highly recommend the book "Entering Space" by Dr Robert Zubrin, PhD for a serious nuts and bolts layman's discussion of these issues. Look for it on amazon.com.

Answer 4

Your answerers have designed your new space-plane for you--let's go for a ride.

1. We're burning rocket fuel, so we are not depending on ambient oxygen for our fuel mix.

2. We've got a wing design that gives us the lift we want at lower horizontal flight, but not presenting enough cross-section to create friction (toast) problems at higher speeds. Maybe it's a moveable wing design; I guess I'll have to watch out the windows during the ascent. We also have a braking system for return from space (a la the Shuttle, that has a heat shield) so that we don't toast ourselves on reentry.

3. We've got some serious kick in the engines once we get above 60,000 feet (above which we're all "spaceship"). We need to reach about 17,000 mph for orbital flight at an altitude of around 100 mi., or around 25,000 mph if we're heading toward the moon or elsewhere in the solar system.

4. Somehow the engineers have packed all this in an airframe that's light enough and efficient enought to fly for more than a few minutes before refueling. Wonders never cease!

Answer 5

Some can.

The space shuttle is an example of a winged powered craft that can fly into space. So is spaceship one.

But most aircraft can't fly into space for two reasons: They don't have enough power and their engines require oxygen to run, which there is none in space.

The highest flying air breathing aircraft have made it to 120000 feet or so, but typically only zooming up to the altitude for a while and arcing back down. The SR-71 can maintain about 80,000 feet.

The X-15 rocket plane made it to 354,000 feet (space generally starts at 400,000 feet).

But none of these craft have enough power or fuel to reach obital velocity, which is 17,500MPH, so they could stay in space, (The SR-71 'only' goes 2100 MPH, and requires oxygen for its engines).

Plans have been made for planes that land and take off on a runway and fly sub orbital flights through space but they have never been built.

Answer 6

The SR-seventy one blackbird can no longer fly into area. The pilots area healthful is by using the low air stress at severe altitude. A jet engine calls for air flowing with the help of with a view to operate. even as get more beneficial, there's a lot less and a lot less air. there is not any jet interior the international that ought to produce adequate thrust at altitude to get out of the ambience on that's personal. the gap go back and forth isn't volatile and unsafe, that's merely that orbital area flight is amazingly annoying.

Answer 7

Airplanes are not like space shuttles. The reason planes can't fly straight into space is mainly because they need speed to take off, right? But space ships need a landing / lift-off pad to launch. It will take a lot of work, energy, and money to generate speed to launch planes from a pad. It will costs the government a lot of money. Billions upon billions.

Answer 8

Think about it this way. You go to fly straight up. If you could just go at half the speed of light instantly, no problem. But there are practical limits on the acceleration (like getting crushed by your own body weight or having engine rip out of the craft)

The earth is spinning--fast. You are going to follow a curved trajectory whether you like it or not, because you can't get that much faster than the earth's speed of rotation at the point where gravity is no longer significant.

Answer 9

A team has already accomplished this feat and won the 10 million dollar Anasari X prize. October 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne, Ansari X Prize Winners, Burt Rutan and Paul Allen.

Answer 10

Planes require a certain density of atmoshpere to fly. As you get higher, the atmosphere thins, eventually to the point where it doesn't provide enough lift for a plane to get any higher.

Answer 11

There are 2 problems: 1. Without oxygen, the engines could not function and the plane would loose thrust. 2. The lack of air would render the avionics useless, so the pilot could not control it.
Rockets carry hydrogen and oxygen in tanks in order to propel them. Variations in direction are done with retro-rockets, so avionics do not play a part.