13 THINGS High-Flying Facts About Air Travel

A New DIY Nightmare

- Emily Goodman

1 FLYING MAY not be as glamorous as it once was, but it still makes for an exclusive experience: Only about 5 percent of the world's population has ever been on an airplane (though more than 80 percent of Americans have). Still, upwards of 8,000 planes are in the air at any given moment, more than 5,000 of which are above the United States.

2 TODAY'S PLANES utterly dwarf those from the early days of aviation. The bright red Lockheed 5B Vega that Amelia Earhart flew across the Atlantic in 1932 weighed less than 2,000 pounds, while a Boeing 747 can top 400,000. (Each of its four engines alone weighs nearly 10,000 pounds.) And the 1903 Wright Flyer went about 30 miles per hour. Most modern jets, however, cruise at 575 mph that's almost seven-eighths of the speed of sound at 35,000 feet.

3 DURING A long-haul flight, an airplane toilet may flush as many as 1,000 times. And when it does, everything inside gets sucked out at speeds faster than Formula 1 race cars. Early plane toilets left much to be desired: Waste sometimes leaked outside the aircraft, where it froze and occasionally fell, damaging cars and houses below.

4 DESPITE WHAT  you see in movies, it's impossible to open the doors of a passenger plane during a flight. The cabin pressure pushing against the aircraft is simply too strong. Lightning also isn't worth fretting over: The metal cage of the plane protects passengers, and the electrical systems are built to withstand lightning strikes.