Question by Showdown: How does a 17 hour flight from kansas city to rio de janeiro work?
If Im flying south,and its a 17 hour flight,how does that work with the earth making its turn every 24 hours? Expedia says its a 17hour flight. Leave 1100am and arrive 700am. So,does a pilot just fly south,and allow the earth to move and Bam! land in Rio or does he fly south to south west,adjusting to the earths change? Dumb,no super dumb question,but it has perplexed me!
Wow, glad to hear Im not the only one thats slightly puzzled by this,lol. My best guestimation would be that the plane flies south,yet with the rotation of the earth. 17 hours in air will definately leave time for the earth to continue to spin, it cant just fly directly south or I assume it would end up in the Atlantic or Africa,but thats just a guess. Hopefully someone has a legitimate answer for me or Ill be up all night questioning this… Thanks for the replys…

Best answer:

Answer by Charlie
It is NOT a dumb question…in fact I have never thought about this, but would be interested to know. I saw a program once that explained how routes are planned, cousre I can’t begin to remember or explain it. Hope someone with the technical knowledge answers you. I’m sure it is done by computers now.

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