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Robert Walker
Right, the thing is - that the aircraft is moving at 1040 miles per hour as is the Earth and the air. So - in order to hover in that way it would have to first accelerate in the reverse direction to the Earth's spin.

Or to put it in another way - we are in a very slowly rotating close to inertial frame of reference. And to us everything seems stationary. You only detect the rotation by subtle effects such as Foucault's pendulum

So, the aircraft starts at rest in this frame of reference.

Within that frame of reference, just about the only effect of the Earth's rotation is that if you were to hang a big pendulum - depending where you are in the world - on your lattitude, you'd get effects like this.

Plus of course that the sun and stars seem to rise and set if you can see them.

In other respects, it behaves like an inertial frame. From our point of view it is an almost inertial frame with various subtle slow 24 hour rotational effects.

So to travel at 1000 mph relative to that frame - you have to accelerate. Doesn't matter that relative to another frame you are at rest.

MOVING AT MILLIONS OF MILES AN HOUR TOWARDS GREAT ATTRACTOR IN VIRGO


After all relative to another frame we are orbiting the sun at 67,000 mph. And orbiting the galactic centre at another.

And finally,  our galaxy is attracted towards the Virgo cluster of galaxies and is moving in that direction at a phenomenal 14 million miles per hour (but distances are so vast we don't need to worry that we are going to get there any time soon, or at all).

The "Great Attractor": What is the Milky Way Speeding Towards at 14 Million MPH?

Now it does have some effects.

WHY WE LAUNCH SPACESHIPS FROM WEST TO EAST


That's why they launch rockets in the direction of the Earth's spin - that thousand miles per hour could make all the difference betweeen getting into orbit or not, and at any rate saves you a fair bit of fuel.

That's also why the US launches its rockets from the furthest south place it can, Florida, so close to the equator so get as much benefit as it can from the Earth's spin - at least I assume that's why - it wouldn't make too much sense to launch from New York say if you can launch from Canada.

Though - being able to launch over relatively open sea for safety considerations is an important factor.

An easy way to remember the direction is that from Florida you launch towards the open Atlantic.

Another way - that we see the sun rise in east, set in the west. This means the Earth is spinning relative to the sun in the opposite direction from west to east. When the sun sets in the west, is because the Earth's surface is rushing away from it towards the east due to the Earth's spin.

GRAVITY VIDEO MISTATE


And is why it was a major mistake in Gravity that any astronomer would spot (how did they miss it?) when the debris was shown moving in the direction opposite to the rotation of the Earth.

Mysteries of #Gravity: Nearly all satellites orbit Earth west to east yet all satellite debris portrayed orbited east to west
Neil deGrasse Tyson Trolled "Gravity" On Twitter, And It's Pretty Hilarious
Russia launches from much further north than US so has a slight disadvantage there.

AIRPLANE ON A TREADMILL


Oh and returning to your original question - as soon as your plane begins to take off - even when the wheels are still on the ground - but the propellers or the jet engines have started to move it - then what matters is air speed.

Thing is - once it starts to move through the air, powered by jet or propeller - then all you can do with your treadmill is to spin the wheels up or slow them down or reverse spin them etc.

This has no effect on the plane unless it has the wheel brakes on or a huge amount of friction in the wheel hubs.



Speed relative to the ground no longer makes any difference at all, as soon as it has started to use its engines to move it through the air.

 That's the infamous "plane on a treadmill" argument that has sparked numerous internet debates and probably tens or hundreds of thousands of words of discussion.

UPPER VENUS ATMOSPHERE 48 HOUR HOVER, WITH 243 EARTH DAYS "DAY"


So if you were flying in the upper Venus atmosphere - which has a strong circulation pattern, hugely fast winds that go round the planet in 48 hours - then your hovering plane would go round Venus in 48 hours even though its rotation period is  243 Earth days.

While if you hover on the Earth - depends on the winds. Get up to the jet stream or in the trade winds may move. If it is a calm day then you just hover on the spot.

So the plane's inertial frame here is the air rather than the ground, as soon as it starts to move along the runway.

About the Author

Robert Walker

Robert Walker

Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.
Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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