[GreenHornet]

Looking at the proposed route as shown on the map in the article, wouldn’t it be shorter to fly east, across the Pacific, instead of the other direction?

[SoothingDave]

Do you think they don’t know the shortest way?

[BwanaNdege]

“Looking at the proposed route as shown on the map in the article, wouldn’t it be shorter to fly east, across the Pacific, instead of the other direction?”

Just off the top of my head, 24,000 miles (roughly the circumference of the earth) minus 8,700 miles leaves 15,300 for the distance going the other way.

Let me check Google Earth.

(Also, long over-water routes have different rules for type of aircraft, divert distances, etc.)

[ThunderSleeps]

Actually you can get a pretty good approximation of shortest paths with a string and a globe. Stretch the string taut from start to finish... For in-atmosphere flights Earth's rotation isn't a big factor. Prevailing winds however are.

Ignoring those as a first cut though, the most direct route would be NNE out of Bengaluru, over Inda, western China, bisecting Afghanistan south to north, and across eastern Siberia, down over Alaska, western Canada...

Why they would route the other way? Maybe prevailing winds. Maybe to avoid the airspace over some of those countries. Maybe because of a dearth of abort/divert airfields along that route...

[publius911]

Looking at the proposed route as shown on the map in the article, wouldn’t it be shorter to fly east, across the Pacific, instead of the other direction?

The science dumb generation... Figures.

The circumference of the earth is roughly 24,000 miles. All the shortest routes must be along a line that long. No shorter.

24000-8700 = 15,300. Not quite shorter.

[okie01]

Looking at the proposed route as shown on the map in the article, wouldn’t it be shorter to fly east, across the Pacific, instead of the other direction?

Bengaluru is located at 78E longitude, San Francisco at 122W.

Accordingly, flying west from Bengaluru over the Atlantic to San Francisco covers 200 degrees of longitude.

But flying east from Bengaluru over the Pacific to San Francisco covers only 160 degrees of longitude. Clearly, that's a shorter route -- but it's still 8,699 miles.

Thus, whoever drew the map made an incorrect assumption about the routing.

[cynwoody]

Looking at the proposed route as shown on the map in the article, wouldn’t it be shorter to fly east, across the Pacific, instead of the other direction?

It would. 8700 miles, just under 16 hours.

However, the other direction has its attractions, given a stop-over in, say, Reykjavik, long enough to sample the local environment.

Bangalore to Reykjavik: 10h20m

Reykjavik to San Fran: 7h40m