This is your captain speaking.

Thanks again for flying with us on P s airlines.

We've got a bit of a delay here.

Just waiting for the green light to land from a TC.

Well, we're all twiddling our thumbs.

How about I tell you about the two kinds of cabin pressure?

Okay.

You're all still staring at your phones, aren't you?

Here.

How's this?

Do you like being able to breathe during the flight?

There we go.

Got your attention?

Yes.

The only reason you can breathe on a plane in flight is because we the crew, keep it pressurized.

But what exactly does pressurizing the cabin mean?

When your mid flight on a jet here About 30,000 feet in the air at an altitude higher than the mighty Everest itself?

The air is hard to breathe.

Why?

Because it's thinner, meaning the molecules are spread further apart.

And those include gas molecules Like oxygen.

Yep.

The very stuff you need to breathe.

Think of your lungs.

Is balloons at sea level where the air is nice and thick.

You can take in a big full breath and fill those balloons all the way up at a high altitude.

Those balloons wouldn't expand much at all.

Even if you took the biggest breath you can.

I know your next question.

Why don't aircraft just fly lower?

Well, small planes and helicopters don't fly as high, and they don't require pressurization.

But they also don't fly as fast or over such long distances.

Those big airliners that crossed the ocean and save you time on trips.

They like to fly high, much higher than the 10,000 feet threshold higher than that, and cabin pressurization becomes a must.

That way, they burn less fuel, since the aircraft isn't fighting as much air resistance.

Plus, there isn't as much turbulence and band weather up there, so it's safer now.

How exactly do we pressurize the cabin?

It's like pumping of attire Heiress sent into the cabin during your whole flight.

But it isn't the stuff that's surrounding the outside of the plane.

That's how they used to do it.

The air comes from the engines.

Don't worry, it's not exhaust fumes.

It's clean air siphoned from the part of the engine before it even touches exhaust.

Since the cabin is sealed, the air pressure inside goes up It's all a delicate balance.

You can pump in too much air or else you might blow the windows out.

But too little would mean everybody on board passing out and one more thing way.

Don't pump the same amount of pressure you feel it's sea level.

Such a huge difference inside and outside the plane could pop the fuselage.

A booth pressure in the cabin and 30,000 feet is what it feels like at 7000 feet.

How is this air?

Breathable.

Well, believe it or not, this air that comes from the engines is probably cleaner than what's in your house.

Even though it's clean to start with, it goes through a filtration system before it even touches your lungs.

It's scorching hide at first, too, so it gets chilled down.

Yep, it's that very same air that has you shivering throughout the flight.

Finally, most of the water is removed before it's sent to the cabin, which is why the air on airplanes is so dry.

After it's pumped through the cabin, it leaves through outflow valves.

This air cycle is continuously going so that you passengers and we crew have brand new fresh air to breathe every 2 to 3 minutes.

Who all controls it?

Us.

The pilots, of course.

Okay, we do have some help from a computer that can automatically adjust the air pressure inside the cabin.

Find a lot of help, hence the whole automatic thing.

But I do have controls on my instrument panel if I need to override the robot or control the cabin pressure manually.

If the system fails, what would happen if the cabin wasn't pressurized?

Well, as I mentioned, breathing would be a real chore.

You try to take air into your lungs, but it just wouldn't have enough oxygen.

You often associate this gas with your lungs, but it's only part of the equation.

From there, your blood moves this oxygen to all of your internal organs, muscles and sales.

And, most importantly, your brain needs it to keep you conscious.

If the body isn't getting enough oxygen, it could lead to a condition called high pock CIA.

But it's not like you just pass out immediately.

There are warning signs.

And what are the symptoms of hypoxia?

You ask?

Well, it's not fun, that's for sure.

It feel nauseous, dizzy, short of breath, sweaty and disoriented.

Another sign you can look for in yourself or fellow passengers is constant yawning.

Although I recommend looking for other red flags.

If you see someone yawning, they might just be bored and tired.

By the way, the cabin is kept so cold partly to keep people from passing out.

So next time you feel a rant coming on about the temperature, try to understand that the crew and I have your best interest at heart.

Okay, you over there hitting the flight attendant call button.

Can we kindly knock that off until I'm done with my spiel here, I'll make sure you get some extra pretzels and a diet cola.

Thanks, pal.

All right.

What if the air pressure does get too low inside the plane?

This would only happen in an emergency, like if the air pressure dropped so fast that the computer couldn't fix it or if the computer wasn't working for some reason.

But this situation is exactly what those oxygen master for the flight attendant just talked about it.

Were you paying attention?

If the cabin loses pressure, the oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling.

This is when you should put the mask over your nose and mouth.

Tightness strap and breathe normally as the preflight safety demonstration normally goes out.

His air pressure work during takeoff.

Well, before I get this plane up in the air, those outflow valves I mentioned earlier are open.

Once everyone has boarded, I said, a cruise altitude with an air pressure controller as the plane is climbing during take off those outflow valves automatically close, and the cabin starts filling with air.

By the way, this is why your ears pop.

Because of the pressure difference.

Grab a piece of gum or candy.

It'll help Think of setting the cruise control in your car.

You don't feel yourself going faster because the increase in speed is low, unsteady.

It's the same one.

A plane.

It takes around 20 minutes to reach 30,000 feet, so the air pressure rises steadily with you.

All right, what about landing?

So all that goes the other way around.

When it's time to start descending, we pilots said the cruise altitude to the altitude of the airport.

We're landing in the cabin.

Pressure goes down at a safe pays so that no one gets high poxy when you pull into the airport and the plane is completely stop.

Those outflow valves open again, and all the air pressure is let out.

Pretty incredible.

How planes are designed to take care of all of this automatically A.

But that begs the question.

How did early flights deal with pressurization?

The problem was that pilots and passengers back then were experiencing hypoxia.

They just had a little trouble coming up with a solution.

People tried some bizarre methods, like wearing masks with a rubber breathing tube that went to an oxygen tank.

Needless to say, no one was a fan, so the research on pressurization began.

We saw the first pressurizing systems as early as the 19 thirties.

Windows were made smaller and reinforced, and the cabin was sealed like a container system needed tweaking, but they eventually got their.

So what's the next big thing?

In aviation technology?

We have electric cars and trains.

Airplanes will soon be electric, too.

This is exciting because it comes with some major perks.

Hypersonic flight, which would mean arriving at your vacation spot even faster.

Scientists are also working on biofuels, so planes will be more ego friendly and give off fewer greenhouse gases And guess what?

Flying taxis aren't too far off, and they won't need pilots.

Oh, does that mean I'll be out of a job?

Oh, I almost forgot.

Remember I said there were two kinds of cabin pressure.

Yeah, the second kind is the pressure your pilots feel up here on the flight deck to get you nice people out of the cabin so we can load up some more paying passengers and fly the other way.

On that note, it looks like it's time to hit the runway.

Well, maybe not hit the runway so much as land this big metal pressurized tube traveling over 100 miles an hour as softly as a feather.

Welcome to your destination.

And thanks for flying with us today on P s.

I Hey, if you learn something new today, then give this video of Roger that and shared with a friend.

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Just click to the port or starboard and as a reminder, stay on the right side of life and don't play on the runway either.