Airplanes are places to think about a lot of things. Whether you take a short or a long haul flight you might dwell into deep philosophical questions. Or you might think about what you’re going to do at your destination. Or maybe you wonder about the plane ride itself. Especially if you have an engineer mind, you might want to know the answers to how everything works and the whys to random things. If you’re a traveler, you might have a special interest in planes and aviation like I do. Wherever your curiosity comes from, if you read on, you’ll learn 17 answers to questions when flying.
For example, did you know there’s an actual scientific reason why food in planes tastes bland? (It has to do with cabin pressure and your taste buds.) This is another reason why tomato juice is popular when flying. Tomatoes have that unique umami flavour, known as the fifth basic taste.
Did you know that turbulence and being hit by lightning is perfectly safe? Well, the plane will be safe but if turbulence causes the plane to drop and you’re not wearing a seatbelt, you could fly up or forward and hit your head.
And what about the green and red lights on the wings? Those serve a very important purpose. Red is on the left and green on the right so that when planes near each other, they can tell which way they are facing.
And why do they still have ashtrays in some planes if smoking was banned many years ago?
Or why is it so important that we put our phones in airplane mode? Why do they dim the lights when you land? Why are plane wings bent upward? You can find the answers to these questions when flying and a few more in the infographic below:
[Answers To 17 Things You’ve Always Wondered When Flying – An infographic by the team at SilverDoor.co.uk]
Was your curiosity satisfied? Which fact surprised you the most?
A New Life Wandering 
Wow this is a great post! It just about answered all my curiosities about flying 😀 Heavy turbulence makes me nervous and I am not a fan of the the landing part! Ah but there’s no way I can avoid flying. 🙂
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Haven’t seen ashtrays on flight in years bu then I don’t fly in the US. Yesterday I was landing in Wellington and it was rather bumpy, and we were told to turn on the fresh air vents if we felt nervous. It really worked!
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Cool! I had no idea about taste-buds being affected. It kind of negates all those airline food jokes, doesn’t it.
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Yeah! I still think the food wouldn’t be that great in a normal setting, but probably not as bad as its reputation.
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