Why is the path of airplane curve not sraight when the latter is relatively shorter by distance?

Answer 1

I'm not sure which phenomenon you're referring to:

Coriolis force or Great Circle routes.
Coriolis basically has to do with the earth turning, it's not standing still, so if you're flying in the air you have your path, also add in the turning of the earth.
Great Circle Routes are the shortest distance from point a to point b, always, period...even if they look curved on the map. This is due to the projection of the round earth on a flat map..there is distortion. Mercator maps let you draw a straight line and find a route that will get you from one place to another using constant direction (SW for 100 miles..) handy if you have a compass. If you use a globe and string to find the shortest route, and then transfer it to a Mercator map...the path will look curved.

Answer 2

The distance is only shorter with a straight line if it is in only two dimensions of space-- like on a piece of paper. Most of our travel is in three dimensions of space. Spacetime is curved by gravity. Any object with mass has some gravity. If you look at the path astronauts took to the moon, it is curved as well-- accounting for the gravity wells around the moon and the earth-- like a coin in a funnell. It would take much more energy for the penny to go in a straight line, than to travel in a curve around the well-- or throwing a ball, arcing it up into the air-- that is much easier effort-wise to get it to the batter than a perfectly straight line-- because of gravity.

Answer 3

When crossing from the US to UK they follow a northerly arc, to catch the jet stream which make a huge difference to fuel consumption

Answer 4

heres what i think:

Since the wings of aeroplanes are curved in order to give them a dynamic lift while taking off, the streamlines of air are denser around one part of the plane,and farther from the other. hence it travels in a curved path.