Why Cirrus is limited to 17500 feet?

I was thinking about over 25000 feet cruise altitude for non-pressurized version of my concept, but I was yesterday Googling about death zone and effects of high altitude to human physiology, and it became quite apparent that it is not healthy to fly at 25000-30000 feet, it is too high altitude for humans to bear even with supplemental oxygen. Even with pressure masks like those on fighter pilots, it might not be very comfortable and safe. It is therefore not a surprise after all, why some non-pressurized GA planes are limited to 17500 feet (like Cirrus SR20 and SR22).

So the need for pressurization comes a lot earlier than I was thinking, and apparently even cruising over 20000 feet would pretty much require it.

Some articles about supplemental oxygen use:
http://www.dr-amy.com/rich/oxygen/

The highest altitude non-pressurized aircraft have been certified usually are 25000 feet according to quick searches to Internet. Columbia 400 (Cessna 400) is non-pressurized and certified to 25000 feet. Flight at that altitude require oxygen mask and it is just above the "death zone" which was mentioned in one Mt. Everest page I was looking yesterday.

According to one UAV report I have (SR22 was compared to a UAV airframe), Cirrus SR22 technical service ceiling is at about 33000 feet. SR20 on the other hand with a lot less excess power does not most likely reach its limit altitude of 17500 feet most likely unless it is very lightly loaded. On our trip to Mojave it barely made it to 11000 feet at gross weight and non-standard atmospheric temperature conditions (it was hotter than on standard atmosphere).

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive