• ours@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    The more you think about it, the better/worse it gets.

    They couldn’t fly from Japan to Hawaii even using the more reasonable route. They were brought nearer using aircraft carriers.

    The Doolittle Raid launched longer-range bombers from US carriers to hit Japan and they were lightened up to the max (dumped their guns and anything else non-essential) and planned from the get-go to ditch over China because flying back would be impossible.

    Being able to fly a bomber halfway across the World was beyond WW2 tech.

  • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    Wouldnt that be the line it would fly actually? If you go from one side of the earth to the other its fastest over the poles or something no? Or because of map projections? Idk that much about maps.

    • bleistift2@feddit.deEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Judging by eye on the map projection OpenStreetMap uses, the direct line between Japan and Hawaii is about one quarter of the westbound straight line between Japan and Hawaii.

    • Sequentialsilence@lemmy.world
      0·
      5 months ago

      Ignoring the fact that you would go east to reach Hawaii from Japan, because it’s in the northern hemisphere, it would actually curve up not down, and because both japan and Hawaii are close-ish to the equator the curve would be relatively flat.

      Fun fact because every country charges you for every nautical mile flown in their airspace, you will actually get lines that zigzag and are less fuel efficient because they are paying less for airspace miles. Example. If you fly from Chicago to Paris or Dubai, you don’t actually head east first, you first head northeast into Canadian airspace and bypass the New England area because Canadian airspace is cheaper than U.S. airspace.