Since the earth rotates from west to east shouldn't the flights going west be shorter and not always longer?
Answers:
No because you are gaining hours as you go west not losing them.
one thought comes to mind.time zones.think about that.but that is a good question to ponder.I'll give you a thumbs up on that one.
The Jet Stream (in the northern hemisphere) travels from west to east, so flights travelling east use that and are shorter than flights travelling west.
Actually. If you were travelling over 1000 miles an hour, and you left Florida at 12 noon local time, it is possible for you to arrive in Los Angeles (local time) before you left.
Problem is the jet stream goes from west to east - planes get a great tail wind heading east, but have to battle it going back.
Not exactly. The Earth is surrounded by air, which is thick enough to suspend a large plane, and also resist the plane's forward motion.
The mass of air around the Earth generally moves with the Earth's rotation, not against it. In short, you actually benefit from moving with the Earth's rotation, as long as you are stuck in the envelope of atmosphere. With space vehicles, its different of course.
An airplane sitting on the ground is moving with the ground (ie west to east). When it takes off, it keeps that momentum, and changes velocity relative to the ground. So, Western flights are just as long as eastern flights.
planes have the advantange of tail winds
some answers are right, some are wrong.
to clarify, the jet stream (a 100km wide tunnel of air) travels from west to east, and goes all the way around the globe, from the Mexican gulf, over europe and Japan too.
This air travels much faster than the air around it and so planes use this to their advantage. when flying from west to east they fly in the jet stream, thus traveling faster than normal. since there is no jet stream going from east to west, the planes rely on their own thrust when going that way.
It's all about the wind. The general direction of the wind at altitude is west. So when you are going west you have a head wind. Sometimes this can be up to 200 mph. So it slows you down. Now, going east, you pick up that tail wind and the trip is shorter.
When you are aloft in an aircraft, your plane is part of the air mass and is influenced by that air mass. Example. Your air speed is 60 knots and you are flying into a 70 knot headwind. Air speed is still 60 knots. Ground speed is a backwards 10 knots. Yes, you can fly an airplane backwards. Since the air mass revolves with the rotation of the earth, flying with or against the earths rotatation has no bearing on flight time. Head winds, cross winds and tail winds will affect flight time significantly.
I won a bet once that I could depart on runway18 (due south) and land on the same runway without making any turns or flying the pattern. I knew that there was a 70 knot headwind aloft blowing from the south to the north. I simply took of on 18 and climbed into the headwind, throttled bad to 60 knots, flew backwards until runway 18 passed under me. As soon as the runway was in the right position, I throttled up my piper cub and did a straight in landing on the runway I just departed. Not a turn was made. 2 lessons here. !. Don't bet on the other mans game and, 2. You are part of the air mass when you are aloft and where it goes, you go. If you are flying 60 knots into a 60 knot headwind, your airspeed will be 60 knots, but your speed over the ground will be Zero. In effect, you will apparently be standing still even though you are going 60 knots.
In the northern hemisphere the prevailing winds blow from west to east, so a flight heading west will experience a headwind & be slowed down, while travelling east the aircraft experiences a tailwind & therefore travels faster over the ground. The earths rotation does affect the air but in a way that contributes to the prevailing winds & their general direction along with other effects such as heating from the sun.
Jet stream is the problem.
no, you would need to go sub orbital to get any benefit from the earths movement..
yes
A better question would be if your in a geo-synchronous orbit at a extremely low altitude like 6 inches off the ground would you appear to be hovering or levitating instead of actually racing at high speed?
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