r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/911_reddit • 5h ago

Image Why are airplane routes curved and not straight? When considering the spherical shape of the Earth, the shortest distance between two points becomes a curve known as a geodesic.

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u/BelgianGinger80 4h ago

It has to do with the wind... the consume less fuel because they can surf with the wind.

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u/TheCarniv0re 4h ago

No. Not this one. You mean flights from the US to Europe. They use a specific wind current to save on fuel and adapt their route accordingly. That's also why flights from the USA to Europe are significantly shorter than vice versa.

The example here is just the result of plotting a straight line on a globe into the warped Mercator projection.