Knots is not the only maritime expression that has made it into the skies. An aircraft fuselage is also known as a hull. The Ship's Library is the folder that contains, among other things, all the paperwork that documents the aircraft is airworthy and legal to fly. Port and Starbord, as well as fore and aft, inboard and outboard, rudder, tiller, bulkhead, cockpit, galley, cabin, captain, first officer, purser, and crew are some from the top of my head. The navigation lights follow the same pattern on aircraft as on ships, with red to port, green to starboard, and white to the rear.
Another one would be in large commercial aircraft, also have keel beams to make up for the possible loss of structural integrity taken up by the wheel well.
@@ZackWolfMusic sure it works fine because they are using it. So the airplanes are flying at an altitude of 38000 ft for example. If they would use the metric system, they also would choose an even number and it would work equally fine. To use all in metric would be more consistent because the whole world minus Murica use just the metric system normally.
@@sil8127 you are right, but you also could use lateral distance in meter and altitude in kilometers. Would have the same effect of avoiding ambiguity but you could use the metric system constantly.
@@jan-lukas No The Imperial System Units such as a 'foot' demonstrate that the system was based on an intuitive sense of how long objects are in relation to the human body. The 'cubit' was used in Ancient Egypt and refers to the distance from a man's elbow to the end of his middle finger. Imperial is not based off of metric....
Very good, back in time in Russia and countries affiliated, they used meters for altitude and km/hr for speed, we are using feet and NM as you just explained. In Mexico they are using meter/second to indicate the strength of the wind on some airports just like in Russia, rest of the world uses knot, one knot is one nautical mile per hour. And since I haven’t flown all over the world yet I am pretty sure there are some more particularities around.
I’ve no comment on the measurement units because they’re practical and as universally accepted as necessary in the industry. I like the links to video and photo sources in the description. Those make a very good and informative video great!
They should announce a date two or three years in the future when the junk units will be stopped cold in favor of SI. Digital instruments could be retrofitted to switch over automatically. Stickers could be applied to old analog gauges.
As a low time pilot i think using 3 different measurement is “luxury” and leaves a lot of space for error. The Russians on the other hand use metric system. They count fuel in liters or kilos, altitude and visibility in meters, speed in km/hour and distance in kilometers and torque in Nm (Newton meters). You have to be very hypoxic to make an error in the calculations.. We should also be also using metric system in aviation a long time already...
It's quite funny that they didn't want to change the unit because of confusion. Today we have nautical miles for flight distance, meters for some shorter distances and foot for the flight altitude. It's an incredible mixture which is the incarnation of confusion in theory. 😂
Most flight computers will already work it out in metric... (because SI units are what most engineers, even many in the USA use) before applying a conversion and reporting/displaying the result in imperial. Pilots are also in general, smart cookies, they could handle the transition just fine, it's everyone else (mostly old Americans who don't like change... but who happen to be in control of the aviation authorities in the US) who are worried about it.
@@sergarlantyrell7847 yes, like I and others tried to point out in another comment is that the system and the units behind all are metric or can be converted to metric easyliy because of the definition of the SI-units. It's quite funny that they don't make that change just because of peronal concerns. I agree completely that pilots could work fine only in the metric system.
3 nautical miles is equivalent to 3.45 miles or 5.55 kilometers. So for example most adults or the average speed to walk is 3 knots, 3.45 miles per hour or 5.55 kilometers per hour.
Knot was a real advantage until GPS. For those of you who have not set a course by hand or have not used celestial navigation, knowing that you ave moving one minute of arc per hour on any great circle route you plot can be very useful.
Short answer is because it’s a useful unit for celestial navigation. Ships relied on this for centuries before GPS. After discontinuing teaching it the US Navy is bringing back celestial navigation. It can’t be jammed or hacked. One nautical mile approximately equals 1 minute along a meridian. So 89° N or S is 60 NM from the pole. Aviation initially relied on celestial navigation to cross oceans before LORAN, Inertial Navigation and GPS made it obsolete. But it was natural for the unit to carry over from ships at sea to ships of the air using the same navigation skills.
@@Milesco As a helicopter pilot, I can tell you nautical miles are much more useful. I don't really care about feet or meter for altitude but pounds for is easier for weight and fuel quantity, until my passengers know their weight in Kg that is.
I wonder what's changed first, the european summer/winter time or the incredible amount of units used in aviation. They could use corona for that. No aircraft in the sky for 20 minutes while everything is changed, just like when Sweden changed from left hand to right hand driving and everyone had to stop for 20 minutes because of this. It worked...
For daily operation, Nm/Ft system works fine with pilots/ controllers. But when doing calculation like climb gradient, M/M makes it much easier. well, nowadays it' s all done by computer then....
The metre is a measure of the earths radius, from the Equator the Pole is 100 gradian or gon , each is 100 kilometers long, hence the Equator to the Pole is 10 000 000 metres.
I suggest switching to furlongs for distance, rods for height, "yards per half-an-hour" for speed, tod for weight, "grain per perch" for pressure and Bushell for volume.
I would not mind using Imperial if it were based on powers of ten like mili-feet, centi-feet, feet, kilofeet, etc (as we use in metric). I cant get my mind to accept 1/128th of an inch as a unit of measurement.
Nobody uses 128ths of an inch as a unit of measurement. Typically, fractions of an inch only go down to 16ths, although 32nds are occasionally used, and 64ths very rarely. (I think I've seen that for some drill bits.) Anything that requires a high level of precision (e.g., machining) uses thousandths of an inch.
The ability to divide units by fractions can be quite handy, however. The fact that you can divide a foot into 12 parts is quite convenient. That means you can divide a foot in halves, thirds, quarters, and sixths. Likewise with miles. Having 5280 feet in a mile may seem strange, but it allows you to divide a mile in halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, eighths, tenths, twelfths, 16ths, and more. That's very convenient. Not saying I oppose the metric system; only that the Imperial / U.S. Customary system has its own advantages too, and it's not as bad as many people think it is.
@@Milesco I guess my brain is wired differently. I can very quickly operate in tenths (the common divisions mimic percentages, 1/5 of a km is 200m), plus metric conversions are very obvious, like 14.75 km are 14750 meters or 536 mm are 53.6 cm and so on. I have to do a good pause to convert 13/16 of an inch to, say, decimal inches.
@@gastonpossel Well, of course, a lot of it is what you’re used to. You’re used to the metric system, and that’s fine. We Americans are used to the U.S. Customary system, so it’s no problem for us. (And a third of a meter is 33.33333333... cm, so that’s one point for the American system! :-D ) I find that in practice, we never really have to do things like convert miles to feet (or vice versa). If a distance is large, we use miles. If it’s small, we use feet. We don’t convert back and forth. We NEVER have to convert 13/16 of an inch to decimal. If we need a 13/16” wrench, we just grab the one that's marked 13/16. That’s it.
@@Milesco As an engineer, I would usually put small things in larger contexts (i.e. in drawings), so operating in just one unit with an appropiate multiplier (mili, kilo, etc.) it's very useful. In Chile we have a mess, while almost everything is metric, lumber related things and pipe fittings are imperial, so you have to buy 1000x2500mm steel sheets, but 1220x2440mm plywood boards and 2x5 inch timber beams XD
Actually the flight height is measured in imperial feet also. (Safe distance is normally 1,000 feet) Being an safety issue, I have no problem with accepting imperial measurements. Personally I just don't get why America (Liberia and Myanmar) hold on to imperial. Metric is so much easier to measure and, especially, calculate.
When I first got into aviation it was very odd to me to use feet for height and nautical miles for distance. Now I wouldn't change it for anything, even though I'm not American.
Nautical miles aren’t a measure of distance, it’s a measure of arc on a circle. So I always wondered, well doesn’t that make the distance change depending on altitude? Well of course it does!, But then, after doing the actual math, the error or more accurately difference traveled at 40 or 50,000 feet, As compared to C level is negligible. I kind of forgot that the radius of the earth is 4000 miles, so what’s another eight or 10 miles between friends?
Natical mile are a measurement of arc using latitude and longitude on a circle, because earth is a flat circle, not a sphere! Distance doesn't change when a plane raising it's altitude.
Despite what several people are saying, this system is badly broken and it is only in use to keep a tiny group happy. As I am "only" 61 (British), I do not have a "feel" for the imperial system or its nautical variant. If I want a estimate in units of measure that would be OK for my great grandparents, I have to to mental arithmetic after I have estimated mow many metres, KG or whatever something is.
Just to let you know that your subtitles spell the metre incorrectly. The SI units define the Metre as a unit of length. A meter is an instrument used for measurement. The Americans get this wrong all the time but as you are not American I thought I should mention it.
I wish the USA had changed to the metric system before I went to school (1948). I had a problem understanding fractions as we moved several times during my formative years. Lets get with the majority of the world!
... and altitude is still measured in feet. So is that imperial feet or is there a nautical foot that is just over 13 inches in length? Crazy to use nautical miles but call them miles, as if a committee could not decide to use imperial or metric units so baled out of making a decision by using something totally different
Nautical miles are used because they have a useful definition for navigation as they have a direct relationship to minutes of latitude. It wasn’t an arbitrary choice.
Knots, NM, feet. For aviation weather at airports Celcius, meters, feet, hpa. Said in another way, the european aviation units should become the worldwide standard.
There are good reasons for using different units for different purposes. It dramatically reduces chance of confusion. Also, there are some very quick maths trick that will in nm and feet.
It's time to go metric, the only old measurement which has any kind of reasonable argument in its favour is altitude in feet, and even then, there are very few if any airspaces which actually use 43 flight levels, it could easily be divisions of 500m
Ok, so I see a lot of arguments over this or that form of measurement. Units used in aviation were chosen not by lottery or default but instead by what works best. If I am on short final I want to know that I am 28 feet AGL, not between 9 and 10 meters. Vertical separation is 500 feet between 3000 and 18000 feet msl. Easy to calculate and remember. That won’t work if we just change to 150 meters. Metric might work in class A airspace (maybe) but in congested airspace below 10000 feet, I would argue that changing anything would be dangerous due to confusion and added calculations, especially during transition. It works, don’t fix it. More important is an error in explanation within the video regarding True Air Speed (TAS), which is explained in the vid as “the plane’s speed in relationship to undisturbed air”. This is flatly incorrect and while the pitot system can indicate variance in turbulence (caused by disturbed air), this is infrequent and transient. Because Indicated Airspeed is based on the pressure in the pitot tube in relation to static pressure (vid basically got this right), it is nearly always incorrect. TAS is the IAS corrected for altitude, temperature and pressure. The difference is often significant and absolutely matters in higher performance aircraft where relying on IAS might cause the pilot to inadvertently exceed the plane’s never exceed speed (Vne).
Since flying depended on Nautical mile for long time, it's better world use it for a coming century or more. but when the aircraft speed goes sonic or supersonic they should use the speeds related to the speed of light and the measurements of distances to kilometers.
@@gastonpossel they actually have mach indications also on displays on both subsonic and supersonic aircraft, adjusted for the current speed of sound in the air you're flying through. Aerodynamics has a lot more to do with a relation to the speed of sound in the medium than any specific 'absolute' speed and is therefore important information.
@@namm0x326 Yes. As an amateur sim enthusiast I have seen Mach indicators on some cockpits. I did not know that is was adjusted in real-time for the current medium's speed of sound. As an engineer I see soundspeed popping out in equations everywhere, whether in acoustics or fluid dynamics, so yeah, important stuff...
had a flat earth clown claim the units were BS - even though a 2000 mile journey in SM would reflect about 200 NM error in calculation and in distance.
@@ZackWolfMusic good luck with that - when the evidence thats so blatantly obvious, as just mentioned- is ignored - mental health issues cannot be excluded
At some point ATC communication will be entirely computerized, then it will be much easier to switch if so desired. Doing so before that will not and should not happen.
Having been a licensed aviator since 1998 I have found the present system to be quite user friendly,there for no need to change it for no chanhesake reason.
The system in place works. I have several engineering degrees and get quite irritated by those who demand measuring systems be changed just because it sounds good to them. I convert units alk day long. It isn't a problem. If you want to see people start dying - lots of them - then start a pointless exercise of changing systems because you think it sounds goid. Then YOU be FIRST to sign up when the change takes place.
@@VrataVenet avoidance of confusion between different quantities for one. Also, the airspace divides up more efficiently in feet. If you go to metres you either get fewer levels or start using non rounded numbers which will lead to confusion. Nautical miles are easier to do quick navigation calculations with since they relate to arcs on the earths surface. The best system is a mix of imperial and metric.
@@peteconrad2077 currently qty are mixed as the video clearly states... So it's a questions or going fully in one system or the other. SI units it should be, else a crash a-la-mars-climate-orbiter is much more likely in the future as autonomous air taxis take to the skies, programmed by non-airmen
@@VrataVenet no, mix is better for Ops. You then know from the unit what you’re talking about. e.g. if you hear “6,000 ft” you know that’s an altitude even if some of the message is garbled. Likewise 800m will be visibility. The opportunity for error is much reduced.
Except that the calculations a pilot has to do are a lot easier to do using knots and NM's... but you know, it's not about what works best for pilots I guess... you remember the pilots right? They're the dudes trying not to crash all those aircraft 'n stuff.
@@afcgeo882 Except for the American public, most of the UK and few postage stamps mostly being outposts or leftovers of the British Empire or American 'possessions', the world IS metric.
@@FirstLastOne And that literally means it isn’t “the whole world”, doesn’t it? About 420 million people don’t count suddenly? That’s over three times the population of Western Europe (129 million).
@@afcgeo882 ??? France, Spain and Portugal alone have a population of more than 120 million. Population depends on the definition of Western Europe, e.g., the countries belonging to the former Western European Union have a population of 376 million (412 with observer countries) vs. 336 of the U.S.. The countries that have adopted the metric system have a combined population of more than 7 billion
It pains me to write this .. but if the aviation Industry as a whole is going to entice new workers the entire measurement system needs to be standardized NOW..and that means metric.. its easier to mentality compute.. imperial / fractional is way more accuracy most people cant do the math these days because it's not being taught.
It's more useful for the calculations aviators are required to do, it helps negate confusion and human error and it makes more efficient use of the airspace.
As much as I love the metric system I think the Nautical Mile and the Knot are a good way to measure in aviation. It still has a somewhat logical background and is also defined by the meter so its kinda SI for me. The statute Mile on the other hand is total nonsense for me and I would love to see a shift in units from feet to meters and inhg to Hpa and Statute Miles to Meters or Kilometers; but Nautical Miles and Knots is fine for me, because infact if you're working with a map it can sometimes be easier (especially to guess if you can only see longitudes and latitudes and no scale) to work with Nautical Miles because of the relationship between Nautical Miles and the Grit System of the Earth.
Statue miles is used for land all cars are based on the statue miles or kilometers.. If a plane is traveling domestic it still uses natical miles so it's like what's the purpose of statue miles? If you want to know the distance between two points on a map, latitude and longitude can solve the distance. There is not even a need for measurement scales on msps...
@@ZackWolfMusic statute miles are sometimes used for distances of clouds or visibility, which is compete rubbish; I just wanted to state my point that I think that the nautical mile is because of its derivation of the longitude and latitude even somewhat superior to the kilometer for great(circle) distances.
@@Kowalski273 Yes you're right Natical miles is based off latitude and longitude. However latitude lines are not great circles like you see them on a globe! Latitude lines are straight vertical lines running up and down, mercator made his map straighten latitude lines because if he traveled on a great circle latitude, traveler's would be taking a huge de tour to their destination. Truth of the matter is that all routes on a globe are longer using latitude as great circles there fore the governments started to use metric system to hide that latitude lines are straight lines for the shorest route to and from destination..
Thanks for the explanation. One the one hand, it would make sense to change to units that the vast majority of the world uses. On the other hand, it would be an MASSIVE task to change all of the software on planes and ATC equipment and things I can't imagine at once. Not to mention retraining pilots, controller, etc. In 99+% of cases it does not affect safety. (except when fuel is delivered in one unit and the pilots/ground staff cannot convert it correctly)
@@todortodorov940 I cannot disagree with you. So then, we can working on the marine industry next. Knots, beaufort, etc. As an old American living the Europe for years, I am still working on getting my head around metric measurement. And I don't live in the UK, where they buy petrol/gasoline by the liter and measure consumption by MPG. AND, their gallons are different than US gallons.
@@burkiwa Metric is not that bad. The US already uses some metric units like seconds, amper, mole, candela and derived units like volt, watt, lumen, kilowatthour etc.
There are a surprising number of planes and pilots using mph, so it's hard for me to agree that "Aviation" uses knots, when it is clear that NOT ALL of aviation uses it.
Knots is not the only maritime expression that has made it into the skies. An aircraft fuselage is also known as a hull. The Ship's Library is the folder that contains, among other things, all the paperwork that documents the aircraft is airworthy and legal to fly. Port and Starbord, as well as fore and aft, inboard and outboard, rudder, tiller, bulkhead, cockpit, galley, cabin, captain, first officer, purser, and crew are some from the top of my head. The navigation lights follow the same pattern on aircraft as on ships, with red to port, green to starboard, and white to the rear.
All of aviation was built on nautical history, language and traditions.
And an airlines also refers to the aircraft the own and operate as the fleet....
@@cf6282 As well as referring to individual aircraft as ships.
Another one would be in large commercial aircraft, also have keel beams to make up for the possible loss of structural integrity taken up by the wheel well.
Some of the first commercial aircraft in the 1920s and 1930s were essentially flying boats
Henlo, you may want to review the subtitle that you inserted.. thank you for the video
Thanks, This has been corrected. - TB
And what about feet for altitude?
Aviation is a strange mix of measuring systems, I think it's about time it switches to something more consistent
What about it? Ft works just fine.
@@ZackWolfMusic sure it works fine because they are using it. So the airplanes are flying at an altitude of 38000 ft for example. If they would use the metric system, they also would choose an even number and it would work equally fine. To use all in metric would be more consistent because the whole world minus Murica use just the metric system normally.
It makes sense. Ft always refer to an altitude, meters always laterally. No ambiguity and can’t get them mixed up
@@sil8127 you are right, but you also could use lateral distance in meter and altitude in kilometers. Would have the same effect of avoiding ambiguity but you could use the metric system constantly.
@@Despotarr exactly my thoughts!
I'm glad we were able to clear that up...
Meters and seconds. But good luck changing that safely.
1nm = 1.852km
1mile = 1.609km
1lb = 0.454kg
1 kg jet fuel = 1.27L
1 US Gal = 3.785L
1 lb thrust = 4.45 Newtons
1 Mach aircraft speed = 1062km/hr
1 inch = 2.54cm
1 ft = 30.49cm
1 Cu Ft = 28.317L
1 cubic metre= 1000 litres
≈ 35.3 cubic feet
≈ 1.31 cubic yards
≈ 6.29 oil barrels
≈ 220 imperial gallons
≈ 264 US fluid gallons
You forgot to convert knots and mph.
Start measuring aircraft separation by car lengths, so us Americans can know whether they're keeping safe following distances
😄😄😄
That is a new fact thank you for giving me a briefing about this topic
Go metric. It might be chaos for a while, but will be much better in the long run.
Imperial is more accurate than Metric!
@@ZackWolfMusic imperial is defined using metric, so it can't be more accurate
@@ZackWolfMusic American educated
Wouldn't be worth it to change it. what is the gain?
@@jan-lukas No The Imperial System
Units such as a 'foot' demonstrate that the system was based on an intuitive sense of how long objects are in relation to the human body. The 'cubit' was used in Ancient Egypt and refers to the distance from a man's elbow to the end of his middle finger. Imperial is not based off of metric....
Furlongs per fortnight.
Planck lengths. 1E38 is approximately 1 mile.
Very good, back in time in Russia and countries affiliated, they used meters for altitude and km/hr for speed, we are using feet and NM as you just explained. In Mexico they are using meter/second to indicate the strength of the wind on some airports just like in Russia, rest of the world uses knot, one knot is one nautical mile per hour. And since I haven’t flown all over the world yet I am pretty sure there are some more particularities around.
In México we use knots
Some also "unfortunately" (in my opinion) use mph. Crazy world.
I’ve no comment on the measurement units because they’re practical and as universally accepted as necessary in the industry. I like the links to video and photo sources in the description. Those make a very good and informative video great!
they aren't universally accepted as necessary at all.
They should announce a date two or three years in the future when the junk units will be stopped cold in favor of SI. Digital instruments could be retrofitted to switch over automatically. Stickers could be applied to old analog gauges.
As a low time pilot i think using 3 different measurement is “luxury” and leaves a lot of space for error.
The Russians on the other hand use metric system. They count fuel in liters or kilos, altitude and visibility in meters, speed in km/hour and distance in kilometers and torque in Nm (Newton meters).
You have to be very hypoxic to make an error in the calculations..
We should also be also using metric system in aviation a long time already...
It's quite funny that they didn't want to change the unit because of confusion. Today we have nautical miles for flight distance, meters for some shorter distances and foot for the flight altitude. It's an incredible mixture which is the incarnation of confusion in theory. 😂
Most flight computers will already work it out in metric... (because SI units are what most engineers, even many in the USA use) before applying a conversion and reporting/displaying the result in imperial.
Pilots are also in general, smart cookies, they could handle the transition just fine, it's everyone else (mostly old Americans who don't like change... but who happen to be in control of the aviation authorities in the US) who are worried about it.
@@sergarlantyrell7847 yes, like I and others tried to point out in another comment is that the system and the units behind all are metric or can be converted to metric easyliy because of the definition of the SI-units. It's quite funny that they don't make that change just because of peronal concerns. I agree completely that pilots could work fine only in the metric system.
3 nautical miles is equivalent to 3.45 miles or 5.55 kilometers. So for example most adults or the average speed to walk is 3 knots, 3.45 miles per hour or 5.55 kilometers per hour.
Knot was a real advantage until GPS. For those of you who have not set a course by hand or have not used celestial navigation, knowing that you ave moving one minute of arc per hour on any great circle route you plot can be very useful.
Short answer is because it’s a useful unit for celestial navigation. Ships relied on this for centuries before GPS. After discontinuing teaching it the US Navy is bringing back celestial navigation. It can’t be jammed or hacked. One nautical mile approximately equals 1 minute along a meridian. So 89° N or S is 60 NM from the pole. Aviation initially relied on celestial navigation to cross oceans before LORAN, Inertial Navigation and GPS made it obsolete. But it was natural for the unit to carry over from ships at sea to ships of the air using the same navigation skills.
Metric system for distance, altitude, weight and volume, please!
Yeah, I'm not a pilot or aviation professional, but it would seem logical to me to use one system for all purposes.
@@Milesco As a helicopter pilot, I can tell you nautical miles are much more useful. I don't really care about feet or meter for altitude but pounds for is easier for weight and fuel quantity, until my passengers know their weight in Kg that is.
@@matthieuthivierge7595 : That's interesting. Why do you find nautical miles more useful?
Km or meters
How about refrigerator or washing machine as an unit of measurement. I saw on us news to use those as measurement on a video.
Look forward to pilots using furlongs, rods, bushels and perches.
A couple of elbows and knees as well, let's not forget the British stone.
What about leagues?
I think kilometer is fine
It is used in some countries.
Miles better
@@ZackWolfMusic Metric is better.
Lots of wind and air speed calculations are easier to do using knots and NM's... but I'm only a pilot so what do I know.
I wonder what's changed first, the european summer/winter time or the incredible amount of units used in aviation.
They could use corona for that. No aircraft in the sky for 20 minutes while everything is changed, just like when Sweden changed from left hand to right hand driving and everyone had to stop for 20 minutes because of this. It worked...
You’d have to switch a lot of gauges.
@@afcgeo882 - Exactly. How would you change all that equipment?
Metric everything would be perfect, because the metric system itself is a closed system in which you can change units very easily.
Wrong.. Imperial is!
@@ZackWolfMusic Yeah sure, just Google "imperial unit chart" :D
@@DomCe ? ?zz
@@ZackWolfMusic No
@@ZackWolfMusic No way is Imperial easier to use then Metric.
For daily operation, Nm/Ft system works fine with pilots/ controllers.
But when doing calculation like climb gradient, M/M makes it much easier.
well, nowadays it' s all done by computer then....
The metre is a measure of the earths radius, from the Equator the Pole is 100 gradian or gon , each is 100 kilometers long, hence the Equator to the Pole is 10 000 000 metres.
I suggest switching to furlongs for distance, rods for height, "yards per half-an-hour" for speed, tod for weight, "grain per perch" for pressure and Bushell for volume.
The jetblue thumbnail catch my eyes 👀👀
I would not mind using Imperial if it were based on powers of ten like mili-feet, centi-feet, feet, kilofeet, etc (as we use in metric). I cant get my mind to accept 1/128th of an inch as a unit of measurement.
Nobody uses 128ths of an inch as a unit of measurement. Typically, fractions of an inch only go down to 16ths, although 32nds are occasionally used, and 64ths very rarely. (I think I've seen that for some drill bits.)
Anything that requires a high level of precision (e.g., machining) uses thousandths of an inch.
The ability to divide units by fractions can be quite handy, however. The fact that you can divide a foot into 12 parts is quite convenient. That means you can divide a foot in halves, thirds, quarters, and sixths.
Likewise with miles. Having 5280 feet in a mile may seem strange, but it allows you to divide a mile in halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, eighths, tenths, twelfths, 16ths, and more. That's very convenient.
Not saying I oppose the metric system; only that the Imperial / U.S. Customary system has its own advantages too, and it's not as bad as many people think it is.
@@Milesco I guess my brain is wired differently. I can very quickly operate in tenths (the common divisions mimic percentages, 1/5 of a km is 200m), plus metric conversions are very obvious, like 14.75 km are 14750 meters or 536 mm are 53.6 cm and so on. I have to do a good pause to convert 13/16 of an inch to, say, decimal inches.
@@gastonpossel Well, of course, a lot of it is what you’re used to. You’re used to the metric system, and that’s fine. We Americans are used to the U.S. Customary system, so it’s no problem for us. (And a third of a meter is 33.33333333... cm, so that’s one point for the American system! :-D )
I find that in practice, we never really have to do things like convert miles to feet (or vice versa). If a distance is large, we use miles. If it’s small, we use feet. We don’t convert back and forth.
We NEVER have to convert 13/16 of an inch to decimal. If we need a 13/16” wrench, we just grab the one that's marked 13/16. That’s it.
@@Milesco As an engineer, I would usually put small things in larger contexts (i.e. in drawings), so operating in just one unit with an appropiate multiplier (mili, kilo, etc.) it's very useful. In Chile we have a mess, while almost everything is metric, lumber related things and pipe fittings are imperial, so you have to buy 1000x2500mm steel sheets, but 1220x2440mm plywood boards and 2x5 inch timber beams XD
I’m accustomed to present system, so I don’t want SI units in navigation.
Pretty cool how far travel has came since distances started being measured! I didn't know this so thank you very much!
Actually the flight height is measured in imperial feet also. (Safe distance is normally 1,000 feet)
Being an safety issue, I have no problem with accepting imperial measurements.
Personally I just don't get why America (Liberia and Myanmar) hold on to imperial.
Metric is so much easier to measure and, especially, calculate.
One because we're used to it. Two we almost never need to calculate anything and if we do we already use metric.
Can anyone tell me how much is for example 150 knots in km per hour please
Metrical units should be used, like this is the case in almost all other areas.
There are good reasons for using some imperial units in aviation.
@@peteconrad2077 I cannot see such reasons. Metric units have always been used in German gliding and we have very good experiences with them.
@@swenschlobach8071 if you use the same units for multiple different measurements there is a higher risk of confusion. You see this in the US.
what is a minute??? I'm so very confused! Time? Length? Every vehicle runs in the same speed??
I believe the british stone is the best for air navigation
When I first got into aviation it was very odd to me to use feet for height and nautical miles for distance. Now I wouldn't change it for anything, even though I'm not American.
That's the actual answer to the question posed in the video: the entire world would have to change units and everything is already marked in them.
@@matthewchristovich I believe Russia wouldn't have to change a thing.
Why would you stick to those units? How do they work better than the metric system?
@@iamkaus Metric system is wrong.
it’s always widely adaptive in the aviation industry. Ppl who understand metric units knows it too
Please explain why ths UK uses a nautical mile of 1,853 metres instead.
I was taught 1852 at a U.K. school which is ICAO standard.
All I can say is : what a mess !!! Great video as always
with so confused system of units in flying im surprised there are not more accidents
Definitely S.I. Units across the board.
Are the knots linked to the twisted mind of the flatearthers ?
Why is altitude is measured in feets?
You could in theory have about 40 planes cross over each other with 1000ft difference. If it was 1000 metres separation you could only get 12 planes
Nautical miles aren’t a measure of distance, it’s a measure of arc on a circle. So I always wondered, well doesn’t that make the distance change depending on altitude? Well of course it does!, But then, after doing the actual math, the error or more accurately difference traveled at 40 or 50,000 feet, As compared to C level is negligible. I kind of forgot that the radius of the earth is 4000 miles, so what’s another eight or 10 miles between friends?
Natical mile are a measurement of arc using latitude and longitude on a circle, because earth is a flat circle, not a sphere! Distance doesn't change when a plane raising it's altitude.
Despite what several people are saying, this system is badly broken and it is only in use to keep a tiny group happy.
As I am "only" 61 (British), I do not have a "feel" for the imperial system or its nautical variant. If I want a estimate in units of measure that would be OK for my great grandparents, I have to to mental arithmetic after I have estimated mow many metres, KG or whatever something is.
Furthermore, as of recent regulations, passengers shall be weighed on a logarithmic scale of the Standard American Big Mac.
Wrong subtitle/caption
Thanks, this has been corrected. - TB
The metrology is a tangled aircraft to navigate the navigation system
BTW & FYI the Closed Captions DO NOT MATCH the Audio of this Video 😓😕😳
Thanks, this has been corrected 🛫✈️🛬 - TB
@@SimpleFlyingNews much appreciated as sometimes I just dont want to plug in my earphones and read the captions despite you superb voice over
Fractions of a parsec.
Just to let you know that your subtitles spell the metre incorrectly. The SI units define the Metre as a unit of length. A meter is an instrument used for measurement. The Americans get this wrong all the time but as you are not American I thought I should mention it.
Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais, on its English language pages, uses the spelling “meter.”
Hello, It's spelled correctly as we write in US English. - TB
Might as well move up to kilometers. Future navigation in space is all going to be in km and AU. Standardize.
metric, no question. the only thing that might have at least some merit is to keep feet for the height, to have separate units for distance/height...
You have the wrong subtitles on this film
Thanks, this has been corrected. - TB
eh , I think that the vid hase an fault . Because the subtiteling is not matching of what you are saying .
I wish the USA had changed to the metric system before I went to school (1948). I had a problem understanding fractions as we moved several times during my formative years. Lets get with the majority of the world!
Metric system undoubtly!
Good explanation!
... and altitude is still measured in feet. So is that imperial feet or is there a nautical foot that is just over 13 inches in length? Crazy to use nautical miles but call them miles, as if a committee could not decide to use imperial or metric units so baled out of making a decision by using something totally different
It is the International Foot. The Imperial foot is obsolete.
Nautical miles are used because they have a useful definition for navigation as they have a direct relationship to minutes of latitude. It wasn’t an arbitrary choice.
Knots, NM, feet. For aviation weather at airports Celcius, meters, feet, hpa. Said in another way, the european aviation units should become the worldwide standard.
There are good reasons for using different units for different purposes. It dramatically reduces chance of confusion. Also, there are some very quick maths trick that will in nm and feet.
thankyou for doing this!! i really didnt know this
Very informative...thanks
It's time to go metric, the only old measurement which has any kind of reasonable argument in its favour is altitude in feet, and even then, there are very few if any airspaces which actually use 43 flight levels, it could easily be divisions of 500m
Thank you
.
Ok, so I see a lot of arguments over this or that form of measurement. Units used in aviation were chosen not by lottery or default but instead by what works best. If I am on short final I want to know that I am 28 feet AGL, not between 9 and 10 meters. Vertical separation is 500 feet between 3000 and 18000 feet msl. Easy to calculate and remember. That won’t work if we just change to 150 meters. Metric might work in class A airspace (maybe) but in congested airspace below 10000 feet, I would argue that changing anything would be dangerous due to confusion and added calculations, especially during transition. It works, don’t fix it.
More important is an error in explanation within the video regarding True Air Speed (TAS), which is explained in the vid as “the plane’s speed in relationship to undisturbed air”. This is flatly incorrect and while the pitot system can indicate variance in turbulence (caused by disturbed air), this is infrequent and transient.
Because Indicated Airspeed is based on the pressure in the pitot tube in relation to static pressure (vid basically got this right), it is nearly always incorrect. TAS is the IAS corrected for altitude, temperature and pressure. The difference is often significant and absolutely matters in higher performance aircraft where relying on IAS might cause the pilot to inadvertently exceed the plane’s never exceed speed (Vne).
Since flying depended on Nautical mile for long time, it's better world use it for a coming century or more. but when the aircraft speed goes sonic or supersonic they should use the speeds related to the speed of light and the measurements of distances to kilometers.
Related to the speed of light!?
@@spongebubatz Yes.. Why Not :D
A relation with the speed of sound in the air would be appropiate (Mach?), if it wasnt variable.
@@gastonpossel they actually have mach indications also on displays on both subsonic and supersonic aircraft, adjusted for the current speed of sound in the air you're flying through. Aerodynamics has a lot more to do with a relation to the speed of sound in the medium than any specific 'absolute' speed and is therefore important information.
@@namm0x326 Yes. As an amateur sim enthusiast I have seen Mach indicators on some cockpits. I did not know that is was adjusted in real-time for the current medium's speed of sound. As an engineer I see soundspeed popping out in equations everywhere, whether in acoustics or fluid dynamics, so yeah, important stuff...
meter and kilo
I still don't understand WHY tho
TL;DR
Metric distance isn't good enough because it measures flat by default.
had a flat earth clown claim the units were BS - even though a 2000 mile journey in SM would reflect about 200 NM error in calculation and in distance.
EARTH IS FLAT! Perhaps you misunderstood the guy or he did not explain well!
@@ZackWolfMusic good luck with that - when the evidence thats so blatantly obvious, as just mentioned- is ignored - mental health issues cannot be excluded
At some point ATC communication will be entirely computerized, then it will be much easier to switch if so desired. Doing so before that will not and should not happen.
Why not use one unit such as klm or mile for everything everywhere
SI units, please!
Having been a licensed aviator since 1998 I have found the present system to be quite user friendly,there for no need to change it for no chanhesake reason.
The system in place works. I have several engineering degrees and get quite irritated by those who demand measuring systems be changed just because it sounds good to them. I convert units alk day long. It isn't a problem. If you want to see people start dying - lots of them - then start a pointless exercise of changing systems because you think it sounds goid. Then YOU be FIRST to sign up when the change takes place.
What I was waiting for....
The new unit of measure is the AIBL, (Average Imperial Banana Length)
Just leave it as it is. It works
SI units across the board. In the long run it will be simpler for everyone.
Not really. There are sound reasons to use imperial in aviation.
@@peteconrad2077 like what?
@@VrataVenet avoidance of confusion between different quantities for one. Also, the airspace divides up more efficiently in feet. If you go to metres you either get fewer levels or start using non rounded numbers which will lead to confusion. Nautical miles are easier to do quick navigation calculations with since they relate to arcs on the earths surface. The best system is a mix of imperial and metric.
@@peteconrad2077 currently qty are mixed as the video clearly states... So it's a questions or going fully in one system or the other. SI units it should be, else a crash a-la-mars-climate-orbiter is much more likely in the future as autonomous air taxis take to the skies, programmed by non-airmen
@@VrataVenet no, mix is better for Ops. You then know from the unit what you’re talking about. e.g. if you hear “6,000 ft” you know that’s an altitude even if some of the message is garbled. Likewise 800m will be visibility. The opportunity for error is much reduced.
I would be happy if certain people stop giving weights in school buses, volumes in pools, and heights in floors.
And, prices in number of iPhones
Size of cities to that of New York or london when few have been to those places
Nobody actually does that except people who are joking.
@@GH-oi2jf you mean American new moderators on TV are a joke? Okay - that point of view actually makes sense.
If it works then why fix it? Zipzone.
The metrical system should be used in aviation because it is the "normal" system for the whole world
Except it literally is not.
Except that the calculations a pilot has to do are a lot easier to do using knots and NM's... but you know, it's not about what works best for pilots I guess... you remember the pilots right? They're the dudes trying not to crash all those aircraft 'n stuff.
@@afcgeo882 Except for the American public, most of the UK and few postage stamps mostly being outposts or leftovers of the British Empire or American 'possessions', the world IS metric.
@@FirstLastOne And that literally means it isn’t “the whole world”, doesn’t it? About 420 million people don’t count suddenly? That’s over three times the population of Western Europe (129 million).
@@afcgeo882 ??? France, Spain and Portugal alone have a population of more than 120 million. Population depends on the definition of Western Europe, e.g., the countries belonging to the former Western European Union have a population of 376 million (412 with observer countries) vs. 336 of the U.S.. The countries that have adopted the metric system have a combined population of more than 7 billion
They should use Furlongs per Fortnight!
TAS stands for True Airspeed not Trimmed Airspeed...
Please make a video on rise and fall of Deccan air btw i love your video love from India 🇮🇳
It pains me to write this .. but if the aviation Industry as a whole is going to entice new workers the entire measurement system needs to be standardized NOW..and that means metric.. its easier to mentality compute.. imperial / fractional is way more accuracy most people cant do the math these days because it's not being taught.
Nope. The system is safe the way it is. Don’t mess with it.
Absolutely not. The system works and there are several benefits to using the current units.
video: about nautical miles use
CC: The airbus A320 NEO
Me: Understandable
Thanks, this has been corrected. - TB
@@SimpleFlyingNews your welcome and keep up the great videos👍🏽
So... why?
It's more useful for the calculations aviators are required to do, it helps negate confusion and human error and it makes more efficient use of the airspace.
As much as I love the metric system I think the Nautical Mile and the Knot are a good way to measure in aviation. It still has a somewhat logical background and is also defined by the meter so its kinda SI for me. The statute Mile on the other hand is total nonsense for me and I would love to see a shift in units from feet to meters and inhg to Hpa and Statute Miles to Meters or Kilometers; but Nautical Miles and Knots is fine for me, because infact if you're working with a map it can sometimes be easier (especially to guess if you can only see longitudes and latitudes and no scale) to work with Nautical Miles because of the relationship between Nautical Miles and the Grit System of the Earth.
Statue miles is used for land all cars are based on the statue miles or kilometers..
If a plane is traveling domestic it still uses natical miles so it's like what's the purpose of statue miles? If you want to know the distance between two points on a map, latitude and longitude can solve the distance. There is not even a need for measurement scales on msps...
@@ZackWolfMusic statute miles are sometimes used for distances of clouds or visibility, which is compete rubbish;
I just wanted to state my point that I think that the nautical mile is because of its derivation of the longitude and latitude even somewhat superior to the kilometer for great(circle) distances.
@@Kowalski273 Yes you're right Natical miles is based off latitude and longitude. However latitude lines are not great circles like you see them on a globe! Latitude lines are straight vertical lines running up and down, mercator made his map straighten latitude lines because if he traveled on a great circle latitude, traveler's would be taking a huge de tour to their destination. Truth of the matter is that all routes on a globe are longer using latitude as great circles there fore the governments started to use metric system to hide that latitude lines are straight lines for the shorest route to and from destination..
Metric unit only.
Thanks for the explanation.
One the one hand, it would make sense to change to units that the vast majority of the world uses. On the other hand, it would be an MASSIVE task to change all of the software on planes and ATC equipment and things I can't imagine at once. Not to mention retraining pilots, controller, etc.
In 99+% of cases it does not affect safety. (except when fuel is delivered in one unit and the pilots/ground staff cannot convert it correctly)
This is what the US said in the 70s. It would be a massive task for the industry to switch from imperial to metric.
Imperial is more accurate than metric...
@@todortodorov940 I cannot disagree with you. So then, we can working on the marine industry next. Knots, beaufort, etc.
As an old American living the Europe for years, I am still working on getting my head around metric measurement. And I don't live in the UK, where they buy petrol/gasoline by the liter and measure consumption by MPG. AND, their gallons are different than US gallons.
@@ZackWolfMusic It isn't.
@@burkiwa Metric is not that bad. The US already uses some metric units like seconds, amper, mole, candela and derived units like volt, watt, lumen, kilowatthour etc.
Use parsecs !
1 nautical mile is 1 minute on the Latitude 44°09.
No
@@ZackWolfMusic what would you know flat earther?
Furlongs per fortnight is my favorite. I have adapted my car's speedometer to reflect this.
Just becuz I am more familiar with MKS system I think meter - kilometre is better
Metric system please. 😎
There are a surprising number of planes and pilots using mph, so it's hard for me to agree that "Aviation" uses knots, when it is clear that NOT ALL of aviation uses it.
Before there were called airplanes, they were called "airships". And so that nomenclature was adopted in the earliest days.
No, an airship is a particular type of lighter than air aircraft.