Why don t domestic planes fly to the United States cross the Pacific Ocean?

Why do domestic planes flying to the United States prefer to go around the North Pole rather than cross the Pacific Ocean?

Many people may not remember when the world's first airplane was born, but this is not important to ordinary people, the important thing is that with the development of the times, the aircraft is constantly updated. Today's aircraft are not only fast, but also maximized in comfort and safety. So, if you travel far away, most people prefer to fly.

When it comes to traveling, people think about routes. Everyone likes to take shortcuts, doesn't they? Although the plane is fast, if the route is well chosen and relatively straight, it can save time.

Everyone understands this, but you know what? China's plane to the United States does not go in a straight line, but has to go around the North Pole, which is an arc from the map, which is what people think is a curve.

To understand the reason for this problem, we must first understand the situation of this journey. We can see that there is a Pacific Ocean between the United States and China. Judging from the map, the straightest way for our country to go to the United States is to fly over the Pacific Ocean.

However, our planes never fly from the Pacific Ocean to the United States. Because the aircraft is the product of mechanical manufacturing, it is inevitable that there will be some minor failures during the flight. And there is no transit point on the Pacific Ocean at all, and if the plane breaks down in the Pacific Ocean, then there is no place to land for repairs, so it is very dangerous.

Second, the oceanic climate above the Pacific Ocean is variable. If the plane is flying over the Pacific Ocean, it is not advisable to fly over the Pacific Ocean because it may be dangerous if it encounters bad weather. The last point is that you may have overlooked, the Earth is not actually the plane you see on a map.

It is a sphere, so flying from Shanghai to the United States can only fly around the Arctic Circle.

What do you think about the route of transportation, which is decided by road engineers after many experiments, so what seems to be infeasible for ordinary people is not necessarily the most feasible route researched by engineers?

I don't know if you have noticed that the route from China to the United States generally does not directly cross the Pacific Ocean, but will take a detour to the Bering Strait first. Why is that?

Visually, the distance across the Pacific Ocean is the closest, but the Earth is round, and if it is drawn in an arc, the distance is not the closest. Moreover, the environment over the Pacific Ocean is changeable, which is easy to have a bad impact on flights, and there is no foothold in the sky over the Pacific Ocean, and it is impossible for the plane to land if it wants to, so it is better to choose to detour than cross the Pacific Ocean.

Because the Pacific Ocean is not peaceful, the natural environment and conditions of the Pacific Ocean are too harsh, all kinds of storms, extreme weather, etc., and there is no suitable transit point in the middle.

Because the Earth is ellipsoidal, crossing the Pacific Ocean is equivalent to increasing the distance. The radius of the sphere corresponding to the latitude where we are located is long and the distance is naturally long, while the distance around the natural surface from the place where the radius of the sphere is short at a high place is short and time-saving.

The first is that flights need to comply with air traffic control, and then there is the most important issue of safety.

Because flying from our country to the United States, in fact, taking the Pacific Ocean is a long detour, because the Pacific Ocean belongs to the middle of the earth, and the diameter of the middle of the sphere is the longestThe Arctic Ocean has reached the northernmost part of the earth, and its diameter is shorter than crossing the Pacific Ocean, so the flight time to the United States is certainly shorter, and the climate change in the Pacific Ocean is greater, and it is easy to encounter typhoons, so it is very unsafe for passengers to fly across the Pacific Ocean.

In today's life, we all know that the current mode of transportation is also developing faster and faster, in the past, people were more troublesome to go out, but in recent years, with the continuous development of the economy, the living standards of our people have also been greatly improved, for example, now it is very convenient to take a plane for most people in the city.

You only need to buy a plane ticket, you can go to ** if you want to, travel abroad is also very common nowadays, and travel abroad basically has to take a plane, for example, flying to the United States can only take a plane, take a ship for too long, and it is impossible to take a train.

But after looking at the map, many people will find that we go to the United States basically only across the Pacific Ocean, but the plane to the United States is flying over the Arctic Ocean, many people wonder, why not go to the Pacific Ocean, but to the north? Flying a plane is naturally to save passengers' time and the cost of flying.

Therefore, it is impossible to take a long detour, otherwise the fuel of the plane will be used much faster, but we must know that the earth is a spherical shape, that is, the diameter distance from above will become smaller and smaller, and the distance will become larger and larger when flying to the middle, so the shortest distance with the United States is through the Arctic Ocean.

And most planes will not go to the Pacific Ocean, because there are many uncertain factors in the Pacific Ocean, for example, typhoons often occur in the Pacific Ocean, for the safety of passengers, most planes will not fly to the Pacific Ocean, and to the Pacific Ocean will fly farther, for example, you fly from Shanghai or Beijing to New York in the United States, generally through the Arctic Ocean, the speed will be much faster, after all, the map and the distance measurement of the earth is not the same, just look at the mobile phone map, The distances seen may not be real.

Due to the very long distance between China and the United States, few people choose to travel by boat, but choose to travel by passenger plane. However, it is very incomprehensible that the flights between China and the United States do not follow a straight line, but have to go around the Bering Strait in a large circle to reach their destination. It's just so weird.

Is it because the fuel on the plane can't last up to the United States, so it needs to be refueled halfway?

In fact, the range of passenger aircraft on intercontinental flights can easily reach more than 15,000 kilometers, so fuel is not a critical issue. Geographically, if you cross the Pacific Ocean from Beijing to the mainland of the United States, the distance is about 14,000 kilometers, and if you cross the Eurasian continent and the Atlantic Ocean from east to west, it is 15,000 kilometers, and the cruising range of intercontinental flights can meet the conditions.

In fact, going around the Bering Strait is the right thing to do, and what we think is going around the Pacific Ocean is not the right thing to do. This brings us to some geometry.

We know that the earth is an ellipse, not a perfect circle, so what we intuitively think is the shortest distance is not necessarily the shortest. Because this distance can actually be calculated by spreading the entire earth flat. This brings us to a key concept, which is the Great Circle Route.

On an elliptical sphere, two points can be drawn with an infinite number of connecting lines, and the one with the largest circumference is the farthest route between the two points. In the arrangement of the route, it also basically follows the theorem of the great circle route, and the method of taking the equiangular route for a short distance.

Therefore, the routes we see from flights between China and the United States are generally along the Bering Strait.

In addition, the Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on the earth, and it is actually very unsuitable to cross it from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, because the climate at sea is complex and changeable, and it is easy to be affected by wind and rain.

It's not a question of daring or not, because the leap over the Pacific Ocean is the most recent, but in reality the Earth is an irregular sphere, and the linear distance between two points is not what a plan looks like. First of all, flying over the Pacific Ocean is not the shortest flight route. The shortest path between any two points on Earth is a bad arc formed by the intersection of these two points with the Earth's central plane and the Earth's surface.

We call this shortest path the Great Circle Route, and we follow the plane's globe and the Great Circle Route is shown as an arc on the map, just like flying from Shanghai to Los Angeles.

This is also why the range map on the plane shows that the direct flight from China to the United States is curved, and secondly, the need for safety, which is not allowed by the ETOPS stipulated by the International Civil Aviation Administration. In case of a mechanical failure while the plane was flying to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I couldn't even find the airport. In actual flight, the route will be somewhat different from the above route, including the entry and exit routes, thus deviating from the nearest route.

Although the route is long, it can be accelerated by the wind of the air currents created by the rotation of the Earth.

In order to avoid the cyclone on the Great Flat Sea, the prototype of the typhoon, on the contrary, it can reach its destination faster and safer, maybe some people will tangle the linear distance between two points is the shortest, isn't it, in fact, people forget that the maps we browse every day are flat maps, and the earth is not a plane but a sphere, and this includes mathematics and geographical scope. We look for the shortest distance between two points on the sphere.

That is, the lower arc of the plane great circle cut by two points and the center point of the sphere, but no one says that the distance between the two points is the shortest on the sphere, and at the same time, the Earth is an ellipse, the equator is slightly convex, the flatter the poles, and then we can shorten the flight distance accordingly by flying along high latitudes. In addition, the climate of the polar region of the Bering Strait belongs to the westerly wind zone, and with the help of tailwinds, we can save time and fuel, and combining the knowledge of these two aspects, the arc from China to the United States should be the shortest distance.

Why don't planes flying from China to the United States directly cross the Pacific Ocean? The answer turned out to be this.

Because the Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in the world, the area is too large, and if you fly over the Pacific Ocean, it will be difficult for the plane to survive an accident.

Because the fuel on the plane is not enough to support such a long voyage, there must be a place to refuel and stop, and the significance of aircraft carriers is also in this, after all, the Pacific Ocean is unbelievably large.

The Pacific Ocean is too big to make contact with the ground over the Pacific Ocean, so it is not possible to fly directly over the Pacific Ocean.

There are repaired roads when the car is driving on land, and when the plane is flying in the sky, it must fly according to the route developed in the air, especially the civil aircraft, otherwise, the plane will be destroyed and killed every second!! And if you want to develop a waterway in the air, you must meet some necessary hard conditions! The main points are as follows.

The waterway to be developed must be a place that the radar can cover! Otherwise, the ground cannot control the aircraft in the air, and it is difficult to give instructions to take corresponding measures in the event of a dangerous situation. Because there is very little land in the vast Pacific Ocean, it is particularly difficult to install radar.

Failure to meet this requirement will not lead to the development of routes. The waterway must avoid areas of military activity. The meteorological conditions of the place where the waterway passes must be met to meet the conditions for the flight of the aircraft!

Aircraft are constantly affected by meteorological conditions at all stages of flight! And airflow is the most important factor! Factors such as air temperature, air pressure, thunderstorms, atmospheric turbulence, jet streams, wind direction, wind shear and other factors will bring a deadly threat to the aircraft!

In the above two points, due to radar coverage and meteorological conditions, so far, no direct route from China to the United States and across the Pacific Ocean has been developed, so it can only fly around the north. This is the main reason. Flying around the north to the United States, I intuitively feel that it is far away, but in fact, it is not!

Because the earth is a sphere, if the circumference of the equator is measured, the total length is about 40,000 kilometers. But if you measure the circumference at 60 degrees north latitude, it is much, much shorter than the circumference of the equator, and you will see it at a glance when you take out the globe!

Theoretically, the area taken by the airplane is the inferior arc of the great circle that passes through the center of the earth, and this distance is the closest, and the route from China to the United States, through the Pacific Ocean, belongs to the weft coil, not through the great circle of the center of the earth, and this distance is actually greater than the distance of flying to the northeast and then to the southeast. To save fuel and cost, fly north and then south. This theory is based on the fact that the earth is a sphere, and it has also been tested by physical calculations.

There is a knowledge investigation in this area in the compulsory course of high school geography, physical geography, and those who are interested can look through it. From the perspective of safety, the Pacific Ocean, as the largest ocean in the world, is too far away, and the flight test for aircraft is also relatively strong. In case of a situation, it is impossible to make a forced landing.

And to the north, there is a continent, and it is easy to deal with emergencies in the event of an emergency.

First, the route of each aircraft must comply with international air traffic control; Second, the flight of each aircraft should be considered economically. Because airlines are also interested in profiting, they will reduce costs as much as possible, and they will also choose the shortest, best distance. Third, the route of the aircraft should consider safety issues.

Because the climate on the earth is different, and the weather changes quickly, the plane will choose some with stable weather.

Because it is very dangerous to cross the Pacific Ocean, due to the cost of the plane and the route problem, as well as the weather reasons, are all affecting the plane to cross the Pacific Ocean, as far as I understand the earth is a sphere, the distance in the middle needs to be measured by longitude and latitude, not by the naked eye, airlines need to consider the changes in ocean currents.