With the crisis in fuel prices today I see a way to save a vast amount of fuel in the flight of airlines, by taking advantage of the rotation of the earth.
The earth rotates eastward and when a jet or rocket takes off it picks up some of the eastward momentum of the earth. This is why nations tend to locate space launch sites on an east coast, such as Cape Canaveral and India's launch site. If some mishap should occur, or when rocket stages are discarded, it will crash into the sea rather than a populated area.
So why don't we use this principle to increase fuel efficiency in aircraft? Eastbound flights should fly as low as is practical, to maximize the boost from the earth's rotation. Westbound flights should fly as high as is practical, to minimize the counter effect of the rotation.
The following link is to the posting:
www.markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/2009/06/westbound-rule.html?m=0
No comments:
Post a Comment