Do commercial jets/airplanes often travel faster then the Earths rotation?

Question

If so has anyone been on one and seen the Sun rise from the west or set in the east?

Answer 1

Nope, that's about a thousand miles an hour at the equator. Sure does take a long time for the sun to set flying westbound though. Seems to sit right there in the windshield forever. Ouch. We may not be out flying the rotation but we sure are catching up a little. And of course the concord used to land at JFK before it took off in London. Think about that one and you figure it out. heheheh

Answer 2

No.  In the populated latitudes, which is where commercial airliners fly, the top speed of an airliner is about half the speed at which a point on the earth's surface moves toward the east due to the earth's rotation.  You would have to be flying further north than the Arctic Circle to be able to catch up with the sun in a commercial airliner.

Some military aircraft can fly faster than the sun, but they are usually busy doing something more important.

If you are not sure you understand this, ask your science teacher about it.

Answer 3

You already got two excellent answers but I'll add this: If you were to fly from say Moscow to New York in the Concorde, leaving around midnight at the end of June, you would see the sun rising over the north, then set over the north, then you would land in New York in the dark but earlier than the time you left. That is because the great circle route (the shortest route) goes then over Norway and Greenland, north of the polar circle where the sun shines at midnight around the summer solstice.

Answer 4

it depends what latitude. Near the poles the earth turns slower as the circumfrence at that latitude is less. For instance, if santas house was exectly on the north pole (and it is) and you were to walk around the outside of his house and this took half of a 24 hour day then even tough you were going really slow then you would be going twice the speed the earth turns.  At the equator it turns like a thousand km per hour ir something like 1000 mph.  Passenger jets dont go this fast. BUT the concorde did go 1490mph.  But they dont fly anymore so the answer is NO.

Answer 5

Only the concorde can fly faster than the Earth's rotation. Not including military aircraft.

Interesting side note: When flying with the rotation, (flying eastbound), the speed, height above ground (about 70,000 in cruise), and the extra energy from flying with the rotation, reduces the effect of gravity by approximately 1.6 percent.

Answer 6

Remember, too, that the earth's atmosphere rotates in sync with the earth.