Why dont commercial airlines fly in a straight line?

Answer 1

A number of reasons. A straight line around a curved earth would look like an arch, The earth is round and airplanes must compensate for that. Also they factor in the Jet stream. Let the Jet stream carry you and you might not be following a straight line. You would let the jet stream push you as much as possible to increase speed and fuel efficiency.

Answer 2

In order to fly straight from takeoff to landing, the runway would have to be pointing in the direction of the destination airport and either have sufficient runway length for liftoff without obstructions at the airport and enroute, or a compensating headwind. Noise would have to be tolerated at the departure and destination airports. All other traffic would have to get out of the way and the airliner would have to get an Air Traffic Control clearance to do so. The navigation system would have to be extremely precise and the wind would have to have to be calm or an exact headwind thoughout the flight. The departure would also have to be delayed until there was no severe weather during the proposed flight that might cause major discomfort to the passengers or damage to the aircraft. The landing runway at the destination would have to be perfectly aligned with the course and of sufficient length.

All of these requirements are impractical. Airport runways are not on a turntable, so there has to be compensation for the wind effects. There are training airports in China where the takeoff surface is a square or circle, and the airplane is just pointed into the wind for takeoff and landing. To design such an airport for commercial airliners would be too costly.

A typical airline flight would involve flight planning to take advantage of the most fuel efficient route considering possible air traffic, winds aloft, severe weather, turbulence, military traffic areas, minimum safe altitude for obstructions and fuel efficient altitude considering also the limitations of the aircraft including the onboard navigation systems. If an aircraft is capable of cruising higher than most other aircraft, a more direct route becomes possible. Once the plan is submitted for clearance, the controlling agency will alter the plan to fit in with other traffic. The active runway is based on many factors, including wind, obstructions, weather, and noise abatement policies. The destination may be westbound, but the active runway is easterly, then once airborne, a turn would have to be made at air traffic control's discretion. If a thunderstorm is detected enroute, it is much safer to avoid it by at least 20 nautical miles. When airliners use ground based navigation, they fly from one VOR station to another along an airway that may have bends in them. VORs send out radio signals to be received and interpreted by the aircraft. VOR stands for Very-high frequency Omni-Range. As the airliner descends and gets closer to the arrival airport, there may be more traffic than the airport can handle at one time. The airliner may have to go into a holding pattern for awhile or possibly divert to another airport.

Answer 3

actaually they do, but because of the sphereoid shape of the globe, a straight line ona map will be arched, this is called a rhume line, in small trips with will not make a much of a difference but when a comercial liner plots a course the will fly what is called a great circle track, which on a map would look arched but in actuall fact is a straight line. there is also the consideration of the airways claifications in britain there are air corridors at flight level 24, 500 and a bove which is class a airspace, which is generally a straight lines but there are junctions and intersections. hope this helps

Answer 4

Airlines give the crew what is called a canned flight plan; this flight plan may contain departure and arrival segments that work the aircraft into a desired traffic flow that ATC (air traffic control) works with. Once on course if weather and traffic permits the course is generally straight or what is called great circle route due to the earths curvature.

Answer 5

Commercial airlines are constantly controlled by ATC (air traffic control) while they are in the air. There are literally highways in the sky restricted to controlled aircraft. They are assigned altitudes, speeds and are constantly monitored. The whole idea is to keep them safely seperated from other air traffic and to get them safely to their destination. They cannot deviate from their ATC instructions without clearing it with ATC. They go where they are told to go, and it is not always in a straight line from point to point.

Answer 6

The pilots are mainly ex military and they are told not to fly straight and level for more than 5 seconds if they dont want to get shot down.

Answer 7

NO. that's horribly racist. i'm happy that your classification is examining the priority, yet possibly they could desire to maintain your comments nicely recommended. there are lots of Arabs that don't opt for to be a suicide bomber. There are few that do. think of if one white guy or woman tried to smuggle drugs right into a rustic. and then rapidly, the rustic says that white anybody isn't any further allowed to fly into that united states. nicely lots of white human beings have tried smuggling drugs and been caught, and that they have got not been banned on a blanket foundation everywhere yet. i'm against double standards. So if this got here approximately and it got here approximately for each guy or woman, say see you later to the quickest worry-unfastened style of transport we've. And the different outcomes of this occurring, political and in any different case, could be unimaginably super. So lower back, no.

Answer 8

Like a road has traffic so does the sky. Its called air traffic. The pilots have to avoid other planes and take a special route, its all down to the air traffic controller, he/she says where to go to avoid accidents and guides the pilot along a flight path (road if your in a car)

Answer 9

For the exact same reason you don't drive your car in a straight line. They are following routes that are designated by air traffic control. If they didn't the chances of collisions would be greatly increased.

Answer 10

because of weather and because of traffic, and because some places are controlled airspace and because just before a plane crashes into mother earth if the pilot does a few turns it will make our death a little easier and not mess stuff so much. just kidding the sky is a very busy place.