There's a scientific reason why the world's longest flight travels in a curved route

Just like passengers eager to reach their destination, pilots also want to get there as quickly as possible. While it’s commonly assumed that they always take the shortest route, that’s not always the case. Pilots sometimes have to navigate wind currents, volcanic ash, and other factors that can extend the flight path. For instance, consider the “world’s longest flight.” A TikToker, Travel with DJ (@6699quotes), highlighted in a video how this flight follows a curved path rather than a straight line, leaving many viewers puzzled.

The video showed the route map of the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight, which travels over 9,500 miles from New York City to Singapore. It takes about 19 hours and 29 minutes to fly from Singapore (SIN) to New York (NYC), according to Trip.com Singapore. The viral video displayed that the flight went from North Greenland and flew across the North Pole, then South over Russia and China. Such a long-stretched route would test the endurance of passengers onboard the flight, but what’s even more perplexing is the thought on people's minds, “Why not just fly straight?” But as it turns out, there are some very simple explanations for this.

According to CNN, the flight takes a curved route because the shortest route is not a straight line. It’s a curved line as the Earth is round. It's all about the planet’s curvature. Forbes also elaborated on the same point, explaining that this is simple mathematics and physics. The spherical shape of the Earth influences the pilots to fly around the smaller circumference of the Earth, which is called the “Great Circle Route.”

A TikToker, @vibinozzy, gave another explanation for this bizarre flight route. He commented, “The reason is ‘Jetstreams,’ which are wind channels from west to east, located in the north and south of the globe.” Jet streams are “bands of strong wind that generally blow from west to east all across the globe.” They are formed when warm air masses meet cold air masses in the atmosphere. They impact weather and air travel among many other things in the planet’s atmosphere, per NOAA SciJinks.

According to Forbes, jetstreams indeed are major factors in why a pilot may not take what appears to be a straight route. Airplanes usually fly in the mid to upper troposphere. So, if an airplane flies in a powerful jet stream and they are traveling in the same direction, the airplane can get a boost. 

You can follow Travel with DJ on TikTok for more videos related to travel routes.