We can say that airplanes are the vehicle that allows us to travel the fastest among all means of transportation. Airplanes, which eliminate friction to a great extent because they fly, can reach much higher speeds than vehicles such as cars and ships. Well, have you ever thought about how the direction the planes go affects their speed?
Let’s say you want to hop on a plane and go to the other side of the world. Would you like your plane to fly east to west or west to east? Since the world rotates from west to east, you may think that going east to west will “make your destination closer to you, so we will arrive faster”. That thought would be a misnomer. Because planes fly faster when they go from west to east. So what’s the reason for this? Let’s find out the reason behind the additional speed or deceleration our Earth brings to airplanes.
The world is spinning, but what happens to the planes in the air?
Even though we can’t feel it, our Earth is spinning at great speed. The rotation of the Earth, which completes a full tour in 24 hours, is not limited to the earth. At the same time, our atmosphere, which extends up to 100 km, rotates with the Earth. Although the uppermost layers of the atmosphere follow our planet a little further behind, this rotation is occurring with the atmosphere and everything else inside the planet. In other words, the planes rotate with the Earth even if they apply no force. So why do planes fly faster when they travel from west to east?
The force that makes airplanes go faster or slower: Jet streams
Airplanes use air along with fuel to power their engines. This incoming air, along with the fuel, turns the engines, and the wings also interact with the air, allowing the plane to glide. There are very strong wind currents on our planet that blow at intervals of 10 to 30 km from the earth. These winds, called jet currents, blow at speeds of 100 to 400 km. This current, which cannot be felt from the ground, is at the altitude where the planes are flying and causes the planes to go faster or slower according to the direction they are going.
Of course, these jet streams have something to do with the Earth’s rotation. If the Earth were not rotating, the winds would only occur in the north and south directions, blowing between the equator and the poles. As the Earth rotates, air currents shift eastward in the northern hemisphere and westward in the southern hemisphere. We know that each region rotates at different speeds as a result of the Earth being in a spherical structure that is flattened from the poles and bulging from the equator. Because of these different velocities, jet streams also move in a meandering fashion.
So what does airplanes have to do with jet streams?
To explain the effect of jet streams on airplanes, we will explain this with an example. Let’s say you bought a round-trip ticket for the Izmir – Ankara flight. Passenger planes usually travel at 800 km/h. You started flying from Izmir to Ankara. There is a jet stream blowing at 200 km/h. This current will increase your land speed to 1000 km/h while you fly to Ankara. When you come back from Ankara to İzmir after you’ve done your business and enter the same stream, the land speed of your plane drops to 600 km/h. This will affect the flight time and fuel of the plane.
Aircraft; While going from west to east, it will go faster with the effect of the wind, while going from east to west, it will slow down more because it will go against the wind. Today we explained to you why planes go faster when flying from west to east. Do not forget to share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
Source: 1, 2, 3
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