Other than a very bumpy ride and lots of nerves, I would think a 737 (and many other commercial jets) would have no problem flying through a hurricane. Landing on the other hand...
Anyone with knowledge of this?
Anyone with knowledge of this?
To say that a 737 would have "no problem" would be overly optimistic. A 737, like all commercial airliners, is pretty tough, but there are plenty of things in a hurricane that could bring one down. There's hail, up-and-downdrafts that far exceed the capability of the aircraft to overcome them, and turbulence severe enough to flip the plane inverted. The least likely event is turbulence severe enough to structurally damage the plane, though even that is possible, and hail could definitely damage the plane, especially the engines, to the point where it would no longer be airworthy. You might make it, but you'd be rolling some pretty serious dice.
Landing in a hurricane would be impossible. You can handle being kicked around in the air because there's nothing to hit. But near the ground you need reasonably stable air in order to make a controlled landing. Anything more than around 50 knots is pretty much a show-stopper for any civilian aircraft, and even much slower winds than that can present significant challenges if they're gusty or not aligned with the runway.
That's true, but they can (and usually do) contain embedded thunderstorms.
> and has very limited vertical movement in its airflows.
Except for the embedded thunderstorms.
> The hurricane hunter P3s do it.
That's true, but they can do it because their destination is the eye of the storm. That allows you to do all your navigation relative to the storm.
Commercial airliners are trying to reach a destination on the ground, i.e. a target that is moving relative to the hurricane. Trying to navigate with this additional constraint is a whole different ballgame.
Landing and taking off in one, however, would be really bad once the winds pick up.
It's vertical winds that are dangerous to fly through, which is what thunderstorms create.
That depends on what you mean by "non-hurricane air." An embedded thunderstorm by definition has to be embedded in some other weather system. That other weather system doesn't have to be a hurricane, but so what? That doesn't change the fact that one of the many dangers of flying into a hurricane is the embedded thunderstorms it contains.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/prepare/hazards.php
"Hurricanes and tropical storms can also produce tornadoes. These tornadoes most often occur in thunderstorms embedded in rain bands well away from the center of the hurricane; however, they can also occur near the eyewall."
> The hurricane by itself presents very little danger to a plane in the air
That's a vacuous statement. Yes, if you remove all the dangerous parts of a hurricane, whatever remains is, by definition, not dangerous. And yes, it's true that strong winds by themselves are not dangerous. Commercial airliners regularly fly through the jet stream which is comparable to a hurricane in terms of wind speed. But that doesn't change the fact that hurricanes contain embedded thunderstorms, which can be very dangerous.