Would flying with the earths rotation prolong the flying time?

Answer 1

I wasn't going to answer until I read the Flight instructor saying the earth rotates at 3000 MPH....wow. At 3000 miles per hour the day would be only 8 hours long.
I guess that's why the Air Force just has Pilots and The United States Navy has " Naval Aviators."

Do the math. The earth at the equator is roughly 25,000 miles in circumference; a day is 24 hours therefore the speed of rotation at the equator is approximately 1043 Miles per hour. (measured from a fixed point in space)
The rotational ground speed above and below the equator is slower as you get closer to the poles until at the poles it is zero MPH.

That is why NASA launches rockets in southern Florida, the French in South America. The farther you are away from the equator the more fuel required to reach orbit, due to the loss of velocity. A rocket launched from the North or South Pole would require much more fuel to reach orbit.

Now to your question.
Unlike orbital spacecraft, Airplanes fly in and through "AIR", the direction of the earth's rotation has a very negligible effect on the Airplanes ground speed, and none at all on it's Airspeed. So, there will be little if any notable time difference in an Airplanes travel time east or west that is due to the earth's rotation.
Interestingly, that does not hold up for Ballistic missiles, if they are fired north or south say 1-2000 miles the path will be offset to the west. ( if the flight time is 15 min the offset is about 260 miles.) Fired east the path is longer, or west the path is shorter, this is all due to the earth's rotation. The amount of change depends on the longitude and direction traveled.

CRAP...I wasn't going to even answer......
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970401c.html



Yours: Grumpy

Answer 2

No, flying with or against the rotation of the earth has no effect. The time difference in flights is caused by winds at altitude. Often referred to as the "jet stream", these winds are often in excess of 100 mph. You might ask how I can prove this, well imagine if the atmosphere above the surface of the earth WASN'T rotating with the earth itself. The earth spins at roughly 3000 miles an hour and well if the atmosphere was just sitting there, you would experience a 3000 mph wind while standing on the ground. So, the atmosphere does spin with the earth, but not exactly in time, so it produces the Coriolis effect, differing wind patterns across the surface and at altitude.

Edit for Grumpy - sorry I didn't get into the "math", it was for demonstration purposes. I see why they call you "Grumpy". Also, at different higher lattitudes the speed would be higher, but I see you point of using the equator as a reference. I have also flown with both USAF pilots and Naval "aviators". I think there is a good reason no one calls them pilots. haha..just kidding.

Answer 3

An aircraft's flight through the air is similar to the path of a boat through water - it is relative to the body of air (or water as in boats) around it.

Yes, the earth's rotation does have an influence on the movement of the air, so in effect what you are saying is true. But when you consider all the other different factors the net effect of the direction in which the earth rotates in relation to the direction of flight is very minimal. Wind direction (due to air pressure differences, climate variations, etc.), altitude, flight paths all have a greater impact on flight time.

So yes, you'll spend 13 hours in a flight from Heathrow to Singapore, and only 12 hours on the return leg, but this is more to do with the other factors, rather than the fact that your outward journey was in the same direction as the earth's rotation.

Answer 4

Yes. Long-haul flights spend a large proportion of their fuel and time going up and down. They can almost just sit there while the earth rotates.

Answer 5

Yes, it does, it takes longer to fly to the US from UK than it does to fly back. Its added to by the by the weather system also. sometimes up to 2 hrs difference in flight time for a transatlantic flight.

Answer 6

No. From a macro perspective, the earth's atmosphere is stationary relative to the earth.

Answer 7

It's more the wind direction, and Coriolis effect, that lengthens flight time

Answer 8

Yes it does, but of course there are also so many other factors like wind direction, headwind, airspeed, traffic etc.

Answer 9

NO IT WOULD NOT. IT WILL TAKE THE SAME TIME. THE ONLY THING WOULD CHANGE IS THE LOCAL TIME. REGARDS MARTIN

Answer 10

It can and it does!