Does an airplane fly straight to its destination or does it go up and wait for the earth to turn before landin

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Craggy

As planes can't hover they tend to fly towards their destination. Also the planetary rotation thing would only work if you were travelling somewhere along the same line of lattitude. If you wanted to go from say the UK to Spain then it would never work.

They don't actually fly in a straight line either, they tent to detour away from residential areas and vary their flight plans to minimise noise poloution.

Sul

Are you for real????

Dave H

2 things: If you flew up & waited, you:
1. Couldn't fly east. (or north or south)
2. Would still have to fly in the direction you wanted to go in, cuz just flying up, you would still have your momentum from the earth's rotation, so you would continue rotating with it, over where you took off!

Shaky

What are u serious do u think an airplane is a helicopter?

RICHARD G

An air plane can't stop in flight Blondie. The ones that tried it have all crashed! Aiplanes flying Westwards benefit from the earth's rotation - i.e. shorter flying times then going the other way.
Also they don't fly 'straight' anywhere. There are restricted areas wind and other weather elements to take account of.

dididdleydihi

omg why did u ask that now im confused ... i dont seem to wait for the earth to turn before i drive my car doh

jackie

Nice theory, but it would only work if you were flying against the rotation of the globe.

free2faul

good question, ha ha, probably would save alot of fuel. hey, are they lying to us when we land to refuel? and does the earth stop and wait for us to do that?

tattie_herbert

WHAT????
You are joking, are you?

chercham

The earth spins at about 1000mph.
Try this out.
Stand near a wall and jump straight up into the air.
If the wall hits you at 1000mph then the earth turned below you when you jumped into the air and it would do the same for an airplane.
I assume the wall didn't smack into you, so there is a better explanation for what happened and why airplanes have to actually FLY to their destinations.
It should be a very simple explanation, but I don't think I'm qualified to give a very good one.
It has something to do with relative motion. You were born on the earth and you were born spinning at 1000mph. Somebody located out in space would see you moving at 1000mph. As far as you are concerned, you are moving at the same speed as the earth, so you don't see any movement - you have zero relative velocity.
The same is true of the airplane. When it is at rest, it is moving at 1000mph relative to somebody in space.

If this is all too confusing, rent the Monty Python movie "The Meaning of Life" and watch until the end when the guy comes out of the refrigerator and sings "The Galaxy Song" to Mrs Brown. It might make you feel a whole lot better.

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