[BUSHDID911]

Why do you think the reason planes only fly in two directional path's from east ending in the west or from the west ending up in the east ? Have your vote ! Would be interesting to find out everyone's opinion ! Btw I'm the newest member tonight so a big flat hello from me hahah

[devils advocate]

I've been on Planes going North to South and back also..............

[3DGeek]

Why do you think the reason planes only fly in two directional path's from east ending in the west or from the west ending up in the east ? Have your vote ! Would be interesting to find out everyone's opinion ! Btw I'm the newest member tonight so a big flat hello from me hahah

This is a completely incorrect premise.  Lots of flights go N/S and S/N.   London-Nairobi, Dallas-Rio-de-Janiero, Sydney-Tokyo are just three that I've personally flown on.

As for the poll: "Why do planes only fly east to west or west to east ?" - where is the option that says "This question is completely phreaking ridiculous!".

The reason MORE flights go e/w and w/e than n/s and s/n is that the North/South America continents and the Eurasia/Africa continents both have convenient land-bridges.  Also, in terms of air traffic, far more people want to fly between Europe and North America than between (say) Europe and Africa - just because that's where the businesses tend to be located.

[BUSHDID911]

You have completely misunderstood the question, if you get a flight from say America to lets say Russia you should see it fly right over one way west to east then on returning home it should carry on in the same direction it does not it flys back west ect eg flat earth

[Curious Squirrel]

You have completely misunderstood the question, if you get a flight from say America to lets say Russia you should see it fly right over one way west to east then on returning home it should carry on in the same direction it does not it flys back west ect eg flat earth

Sorry, lemme see if I got what you're asking. You think that a flight that goes from US to Russia that flies West on the way there, should then fly West on the way back if the Earth was a globe? Why? It will always fly the shortest route it can. If it went West from US towards Russia, it would fly East from Russia to US. Not keep going West. It has no reason to, the other direction is faster. This isn't sound logic for flat OR round earth.

[3DGeek]

You have completely misunderstood the question, if you get a flight from say America to lets say Russia you should see it fly right over one way west to east then on returning home it should carry on in the same direction it does not it flys back west ect eg flat earth

Well, so far, two people have misunderstood it in the same way - which suggests poor phrasing rather than poor understanding!

Anyway - if the flight goes the shortest way (either East or West) on the outbound leg - why wouldn't it return the shortest way on the inbound leg?

The only time I could see an airliner flying a complete circumnavigation path would be if the destination was exactly halfway around the world...and that's a rather unlikely scenario.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_flights ...says that the longest non-stop airline flights are around 7,850 miles - which is about the economical limit for a modern airliner with a full passenger and cargo load.   Since the circumference of the Earth is 23,900 miles, you'd have to have the two airports be rather far North or South of the equator to make it possible to circumnavigate the world in two hops like that.   Since there is much less land mass in the southern hemisphere - it's really not possible to do the flight you imagine - and in the Northern hemisphere, the two airports would have to be in snowy wastelands where people really don't want to fly.

So the reasons the thing you imagine doesn't happen are quite practical.   It's not really proof or disproof of anything very much.

[devils advocate]

You have completely misunderstood the question, if you get a flight from say America to lets say Russia you should see it fly right over one way west to east then on returning home it should carry on in the same direction it does not it flys back west ect eg flat earth

No logic here at all?!?! Are you a flat earthed or rounder by the way?

[Revel]

Well, so far, two people have misunderstood it in the same way - which suggests poor phrasing rather than poor understanding!

Anyway - if the flight goes the shortest way (either East or West) on the outbound leg - why wouldn't it return the shortest way on the inbound leg?

The only time I could see an airliner flying a complete circumnavigation path would be if the destination was exactly halfway around the world...and that's a rather unlikely scenario.

[/quote]

It's not like people don't estimate their time of flight. From the US to China, you cover approximately half the globe. But there is a margin of error that people would not want to take into account for convenient reasons.
Plus, on another note: One can fly West from point A and reach point A again from just flying West. However, flying past the North Pole, you would be facing South to head to the South Pole. That is because on the northernmost tip of the Earth, every direction you face is South; and vice versa in terms of the South Pole.

[douglips]

Your question is still wrong.

If you fly from New York to Beijing, you don't fly east or west, you mostly fly north/south. Since both cities are north of the equator, by a LOT, it would be crazy to keep going all the way around.

Imagine you live on a city block, and you live next door to a coffee shop. If you walk to the coffee shop, why when you walk back do you not keep going around the block? If the block really existed, you'd walk all the way around the block, right? Since you walk back the short way, the block doesn't really exist.

See? This is crazy talk.

[douglips]

Here's the track of a flight from JFK to Beijing:
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/CCA982

[BUSHDID911]

Flights from the west will never continue to fly west to get home it's not you have just miss understood I'm sorry if I haven't exactly explained it good tryed my best

[AstralSentient]

Why do you think the reason planes only fly in two directional path's from east ending in the west or from the west ending up in the east ? Have your vote ! Would be interesting to find out everyone's opinion ! Btw I'm the newest member tonight so a big flat hello from me hahah

Are you asking people what they think the reason is for continuation of west or east meeting itself? This itself wouldn't be evidence of a flat or round earth, but I guess it is basically asking what they think the reason for this is.