What would happen if a plane did go in the stratosphere?

All of these answers are interesting, and technically correct...although the pragmatic and simple answer is: the aircraft will simply reach an altitude beyond which it will no longer climb. ... Once a body is going through a compressible fluid at the speed of sound, the fluid does what engineers like to call "funky things.". read more

However, let's just say, for simplicity's sake, the plane simply can't get above an altitude which varies with each plane. A U-2 can go higher than a Piper Cub, for instance. Or to put it in layman's language, flying outside the stratosphere is impossible because you can't ever get that high in a normal plane. read more

The stratosphere is a layer of Earth's atmosphere. It is the second layer of the atmosphere as you go upward. The troposphere, the lowest layer, is right below the stratosphere. The next higher layer above the stratosphere is the mesosphere. read more

The stratosphere is a layer of Earth's atmosphere.It is the second layer of the atmosphere as you go upward. The troposphere, the lowest layer, is right below the stratosphere. read more