Originally Posted by
FoPAA
You do realize that at 35,000 feet or so - midflight - the outdoor temperature is freezing cold, and air conditioning is not necessary?
That's a good theory, but by the time the very thin air at 35,000' is compressed enough to keep the cabin pressurized it's temperature is up around 500° and definitely needs to be cooled before introduced into the cabin.
The air conditioning is not the "freon" based vapor-cycle process that we have in our homes and cars. It's an air-cycle process which compresses the air, sends it through a heat exchanger then lets the air expand back to it's pre-compression pressure. This process is repeated at least a second time. The heat exchanger is cooled by channeled outside air.