Why aren't airplane routes built in a straight line? Why is it always faster to fly back and where can I see a flying airplane online? This is what this article will tell.
Watching the flight
If you are interested in seeing how planes fly, flight routes and more, you can look at services such as Flightradar. It is fascinating to watch online the movement of all airliners in the world - the data on the servers is updated every half minute. In addition to observing the aircraft’s figure, you can also find a set of information about it:
- flight number and airline affiliation;
- a photo;
- current speed and altitude;
- point A and point B;
- distance traveled from the airport and much more.
Neither the presidential board, nor military aircraft will be reflected in these services - only the routes of passenger aircraft.
Trajectory: straight or curved?
What is the trajectory of the aircraft? Those who saw online airplane routes, and often flying people, get the impression that the plane is flying in an arc, which is very strange - is there really not enough “sky”? However, once again looking at the flight line, you will notice that the arc tends to the pole with the upper part. The plane moves logically directly, but when a round Earth is projected onto a flat screen, a curve comes out instead of a straight line. The fidelity of this theory can be confirmed with the help of a student’s globe and a thread stretched between two cities.
But the routes of the planes are not a solid line. The airway is a set of lines between control points, which, although they are arranged to make the flight distance minimal, still do not draw it perfectly even. For such points, both beacons and certain geographical coordinates are taken. Their names consist of catchy five-letter combinations.
It is also important that for twin-engine aircraft (and there are more and more of them), the route should be constructed in such a way that, in the event of a single engine failure, the board can “reach” the nearest airport. Consequently, its route will be laid so as to somewhat envelope poles, deserts and oceans.
But what about the fact that flying in one direction is always shorter than in the other? Passengers try, each in their own way, to explain the phenomenon, even to the extent that the rotation of the planet affects this. The reason here is in the winds. At the height that the aircraft routes are built, air masses move from west to east to their advantage. Therefore, with a fair wind, the speed of the aircraft increases, and with a wind "in the nose" it slows down.
Airport Routes
The reason why the plane lands at the airport precisely on this strip, and not on another, is also the wind. Both during takeoff and landing, it should be oncoming, in extreme cases, lateral. In passing - the speed of the aircraft increases, and it may simply not be enough runway length. Therefore, each of them has its own marked number.
An impressive number of restrictions apply to aircraft routes in the airport area : a ban on flights directly over the city or over a special facility - a security institution or luxury housing, whose inhabitants are nervous about the constant noise of engines above the house.