Ever wonder about the route your plane takes between two cities? Since we are so used to looking a flat 2D maps, our view of a straight line is often skewed, especially if the distance is great.
You might have used one of the flight tracking programs where the thousand aircraft are enlarged so much it looks like there will be a crash over the more populated parts of our planet! The planes are the size of Connecticut at a global view but reduce as we zoom in.
See also my 17 March 2010 report.
So first, fire up your copy of Google Earth. Don't have it, download it today (it works on cellphones too).
From this program you can zoom out, just like you were in space, and because the earth is a globe, (sorry flat earth people) you will only see half the globe at a time. You will see for example that a flight from NYC to London takes you fairly close to Iceland. From the flat map view, it would appear to to a arch across the Atlantic.
But sometimes, we can't take the shortest route. Some countries don't like foreign aircraft flying over their territory. See this interesting article about how flight paths can change.
So this might explain why a trip can vary in length. Happy flying.
Posts
