Eli5 Why do European flights flight paths to the U.S go via the UK and not just straight across the ocean?

Question

Eli5 Why do European flights flight paths to the U.S go via the UK and not just straight across the ocean?

In: Other

Answer 1

It’s been answered already, it’s map projection – but you can see this for yourself in Google Earth. I’m using the Android app, so the method might differ:.

Drop a pin on Greece by holding your finger on it. A little “measure” icon will appear at the bottom of the screen. Tap that and drop the next pin on Chicago. Because Google Earth uses a globe, you’ll be able to see that you’ve drawn a straight line that goes over the UK and Ireland, south of Greenland, and over Canada before reaching Chicago. Now switch to Google maps and look at where your line would have to go to go over the places we just talked about. It ends up being pretty well mangled be the map projection.