Originally Posted by
PhlyingRPh
The transatlantic air corridors that aircraft utilize over Newfoundland, the tip of Greenland, Iceland, and Ireland are great circle routes. I understand that the volcanic ash from the Icelandic volcano's is spreading all over northern Europe, but for times when volcanic activity is imminent and there are no ash clouds in the North Atlantic, why couldn't aircraft use a more southerly route?
So, flying from Chicago to London, using a southerly route rather than the great circle route, one would actually fly from Chicago, south east towards the RDU area, leave the continent off the North Carolina coast and fly closer to Bermuda, the Central Azores and Brest/Normandy before flying over the English Channel to reach London.
hat would be a terrible mileage run. It will cot more and won't net any more miles.
Euclid taught us that the shortest distance between two points is a line. But that's true only in euclidean geometry. In the world we lived in, the surface of the earth, euclidean geometry id wrong. The shortest distance between any two points iin the surface of the earth is a part of a circle, a great circle. Any other route will be longer and will burn more fuel. But we won;t get any more miles.
