Do airplanes arrive faster when the direction is from east to west?

The earth’s rotation is from west to east. Does an airplane reaches its destination faster going to the reverse direction than going to the same direction of the earth’s rotation. By comparing the same distance, which is faster, the reverse? or the same direction?

The question makes sense. Basically, you have less real distance to travel when going west because the earth is turning toward you, so if the absolute speeds are always the same, then you would arrive faster by going west.

However, airplanes are traveling through the atmosphere and can only achieve a maximum relative speed (relative to the surrounding air), and generally speaking, this air is moving with the underlying land from west to east as well. Basically, the air is pushing the plane backwards, making it go further than if the air wasn’t there.

As a result, there is no real constant benefit to direction of travel.

However, there are “streams” of air that planes can get into that will help them along (just like a boat in current), and planes that follow these streams can get there faster than otherwise. the streams tend to migrate west to east, so in practice, it is often faster to go west to east rather than east to west, which is the oppositie of what you would think.

It can work out either way. Depends mostly on the air movement.

East to West by Casting Crowns

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Fossil Key-Per East West Wristlet – Fruit $35 Fossil Key-Per East West Wristlet – Fruit

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