A Hot Topic: The Risk of Heat Waves and Aircraft Performance
Over the years, there has been a steady trend of increasing temperatures in the summers, displaying harsher conditions and hotter days. As the colder months begin to pass and the warm weather approaches, the issue of high temperatures reducing aircraft performance presents itself. With high temperature, the density altitude increases, meaning decreased performance. Density altitude takes into account pressure (with increasing pressure lowering density altitude), and temperature (increasing temperature increasing density altitude) (Cutler, 2025). Thus, low pressure and high temperature conditions create a high density altitude. The way an aircraft's wings work is the air is the air above the wing is moving faster than the air below it, and the pressure below the wing is greater than above it, giving it the ability to lift off the ground (scienceworld, n.d.) With lower air pressure, this therefore reduces the lift, as ther...