There is a flight going from Dallas Texas to Tokyo but they appear to be going all the way to Alaska before crossing and coming back down.
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Go find a globe and a long piece of string. Place one end of the string on Dallas and hold it there. Now, pulling the string as tight as you can, lay the string over Tokyo. Keep pulling the string taught, keeping it over both Dallas and Tokyo, and you notice that the string moves itself to the shortest path between those two points. In this case, that’s a Northwesterly heading out of Dallas. You’ll see the same thing flying to Europe, where the air traffic all goes on a Northeasterly track over the North Atlantic. If you can’t find a globe, use Google Earth.
Sphere’s are funny that way. It’s hard to picture on a paper map (or on a flat screen), because they’re two-dimensional representations of the surface of a sphere, which means they’re going to be inaccurate as hell in some fashion.
Remember, the earth is a sphere (technically it’s an oblate spheroid but that’s not important). If you were to take a pen and draw a line between two distant points on the surface of a globe it would seem like a straight line. However if you take the globe and cut it so you can lay it as flat as possible, you’ll see your straight line turn into a curve. Straight lines drawn on curved surfaces become curves when the surface is flattened out. The inverse is also true. Curves drawn on flat surfaces become straight lines when the surface is bent.
That amongst other things is one of the reasons why it can be interesting to realize the closest state to Japan is Alaska and the closest state to the continent of Africa is actually Maine. So in order to flay a straight line from one to the other your path will look like it’s going on a curve on the flat map.
Though part of that is also due to the fact it is literally impossible to perfectly translate a sphere onto a two dimensional shape. That’s just a simple question of geometry. You’re taking something with infinite surfaces and trying to translate it to something with a finite amount of surfaces. We have to stretch and distort certain dimensions to make that neat rectangular map you’re familiar with.
Remember, the earth is a sphere (technically it’s an oblate spheroid but that’s not important). If you were to take a pen and draw a line between two distant points on the surface of a globe it would seem like a straight line. However if you take the globe and cut it so you can lay it as flat as possible, you’ll see your straight line turn into a curve. Straight lines drawn on curved surfaces become curves when the surface is flattened out. The inverse is also true. Curves drawn on flat surfaces become straight lines when the surface is bent.
That amongst other things is one of the reasons why it can be interesting to realize the closest state to Japan is Alaska and the closest state to the continent of Africa is actually Maine. So in order to flay a straight line from one to the other your path will look like it’s going on a curve on the flat map.
Though part of that is also due to the fact it is literally impossible to perfectly translate a sphere onto a two dimensional shape. That’s just a simple question of geometry. You’re taking something with infinite surfaces and trying to translate it to something with a finite amount of surfaces. We have to stretch and distort certain dimensions to make that neat rectangular map you’re familiar with.
Remember, the earth is a sphere (technically it’s an oblate spheroid but that’s not important). If you were to take a pen and draw a line between two distant points on the surface of a globe it would seem like a straight line. However if you take the globe and cut it so you can lay it as flat as possible, you’ll see your straight line turn into a curve. Straight lines drawn on curved surfaces become curves when the surface is flattened out. The inverse is also true. Curves drawn on flat surfaces become straight lines when the surface is bent.
That amongst other things is one of the reasons why it can be interesting to realize the closest state to Japan is Alaska and the closest state to the continent of Africa is actually Maine. So in order to flay a straight line from one to the other your path will look like it’s going on a curve on the flat map.
Though part of that is also due to the fact it is literally impossible to perfectly translate a sphere onto a two dimensional shape. That’s just a simple question of geometry. You’re taking something with infinite surfaces and trying to translate it to something with a finite amount of surfaces. We have to stretch and distort certain dimensions to make that neat rectangular map you’re familiar with.
It is the shortest path. Same with routes from US west coast to Europe, which often go over northern Canada and Greenland. You can see this clearly if you stretch a string between 2 cities on a globe, or in Google Earth, with the measuring tool.
It is the shortest path. Same with routes from US west coast to Europe, which often go over northern Canada and Greenland. You can see this clearly if you stretch a string between 2 cities on a globe, or in Google Earth, with the measuring tool.
It is the shortest path. Same with routes from US west coast to Europe, which often go over northern Canada and Greenland. You can see this clearly if you stretch a string between 2 cities on a globe, or in Google Earth, with the measuring tool.
In addition to the listed comments about shortest distance, there are also ICAO regulations regarding how far away from a diversion airport aircraft are allowed to be, in the even they lose an engine. Although these regs have been steadily extended (upwards of three hours at present), that still leaves vast portions of open ocean that cannot be traversed.
In addition to the listed comments about shortest distance, there are also ICAO regulations regarding how far away from a diversion airport aircraft are allowed to be, in the even they lose an engine. Although these regs have been steadily extended (upwards of three hours at present), that still leaves vast portions of open ocean that cannot be traversed.
In addition to the listed comments about shortest distance, there are also ICAO regulations regarding how far away from a diversion airport aircraft are allowed to be, in the even they lose an engine. Although these regs have been steadily extended (upwards of three hours at present), that still leaves vast portions of open ocean that cannot be traversed.
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