The Coriolis effect is a new physics explanation of earths rotation
. If the flight route distance is 11,000km and aircraft speed is 880 kph in classical physics terms it should take 12.5 hours each way which is confirmed for north/south routes. But due to Coriolis 3D rotation effect the east/west routes in fact takes only 12 hours from London to Malaysia but the return flight from Malaysia to London takes 13 hours as witnessed in flight schedules. To save fuel; fly east into the sunrise.
Happy Whitsun landings

Why do you think this is due to the Coriolis force? (spoiler: the Coriolis acceleration is perpendicular to the object's velocity)

The Coriolis effect is a new physics explanation of earths rotation

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The effect has been known for nearly 200 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard-Gustave_de_Coriolis

and it's not an explanation of the Earth's rotation.

Temperate zone prevailing winds are west to east. Planes flying east take less time.

If an airline thought it could save fuel they'd be ding doing it already.

Thanks for your replies. But just think, if I take off in a rocket and go straight upwards for 12 hours then parachute directly back down I would land on the other side of the world as in that 12 hours the whole planet has rotated half a turn!

Thanks for your replies. But just think, if I take off in a rocket and go straight upwards for 12 hours then parachute directly back down I would land on the other side of the world as in that 12 hours the whole planet has rotated half a turn!

You still have angular velocity though. You would need to accelerate sideways as well to get half way around the earth in 12 hours.

... if I take off in a rocket and go straight upwards...

"straight up" is not very well defined in this case.

Edited May 17, 201510 yr by John Cuthber

Thanks for your replies. But just think, if I take off in a rocket and go straight upwards for 12 hours then parachute directly back down I would land on the other side of the world as in that 12 hours the whole planet has rotated half a turn!

 

Which has nothing to do with the Coriolis force.

Thanks for your replies. But just think, if I take off in a rocket and go straight upwards for 12 hours then parachute directly back down I would land on the other side of the world as in that 12 hours the whole planet has rotated half a turn!

 

You can do much better than that, a sub-orbital ballistic trajectory could get you from Europe to Australia in 90 minutes. (But still has nothing to do with the Coriolis force.)

I'm not certain but I'm fairly sure that, if you travel directly East or West along a line of latitude, you don't experience a Coriolis force.

Thanks for your replies. But just think, if I take off in a rocket and go straight upwards for 12 hours then parachute directly back down I would land on the other side of the world as in that 12 hours the whole planet has rotated half a turn!

 

At the equator, the earth's circumference is (about) 40,000 km. It rotates once per 24 hrs, so we could say that the velocity of the surface of the earth is abiyt 1670 km/h, or 460 m/s.

 

If you can fly up in a rocket, and come down 12 hrs later (and in the meantime have the earth rotate under you), then this should also work by just jumping up, right? So you could you just jump up, and land 1 second later again, and have the earth rotate under you... According to your logic, it should rotate about 460 meters away in that 1 second... but it doesn't.

 

Others have already given some explanations on what is going on. I just wanted to give this example to make you think about it.