Do intercontinental flights fly straight over the ocean or do they curve to stay on land most of the way?

Question

Do intercontinental flights fly straight over the ocean or do they curve to stay on land most of the way?

Answer 1

no, they do not try to stay close to land. they take the most economically efficient way of getting there. each route is different. trans pacific would have a different approach to planning a flight path, than trans atlantic.

Answer 2

They take a 3 dimensional approach to life choosing the route and altitude that gives most efficiency.  The starting point is the shortest distance, called a Great Circle route.  If you plot it on a 2 dimensional map it looks curved, but if you get a globe and a piece of string it is obviously shorter.  But they also factor in windspeed at particular altitudes.  As an example, the flight from Perth to Sydney can be up to an hour shorter than flying from Sydney to Perth because of the prevailing westerly winds.

The only time that landmass is a factor is where that airline does not have permission to fly over a country, or there is a war on so that it is not a good idea to be in airspace nearby.

Answer 3

they follow a curve - to take the shortest distance

between the two airports

which is not necessarily a straight line

Someflights leaving Chicago fly due north - over the pole -

the shortest distance = less fuel

Answer 4

Long distance flights take what is called a great circle route, since that is the shortest distance between two points on Earth. Sometimes, a favorable wind will change this, but curving to stay over land is normally not practiced.

The route between New York or Boston and Europe goes over Cape Race and near Iceland, but this is because of the great circle, not just to stay near land.

Regards,

Dan

Answer 5

There are lots of factors that enter into choosing a route.

Some aircraft are limited by aviation regulations in terms of how far away from land they can fly.  This is especially true for twin-engine jets.  The reason is that the aircraft has to be able to reach land if an engine fails.  Since an engine failure is more serious on a plane with two engines than on a plane with four, twin-engine aircraft have more restrictions.  This may require them to take a route that is closer to land than the route that might be used by a four-engine aircraft (for aircraft with four engines, there are normally no restrictions on where they may fly).