Honors Engineering: Week Eight

This week I decided to do a bit of research on flight navigation. My grandfather on my dad's side was a flight navigator for the military during World War Two, so I am rather interested in flight navigation.

I realized that flight navigation and regular navigation, (road maps etc.) are rather different. Flight navigation is measured in nautical miles, rather that traditional miles. Nautical miles are miles that follow the curve of the earth, whereas the miles we are used to just follow a straight line. Considering that most airplanes travel either between states, countries, or at least across the state, there is naturally going to be a noticeable curve between the start of the flight and the destination.

If you are in a car, you are so close to the ground that the curve of the earth barely matters. However, if you  are in an airplane which goes thousands of feet in the air, you have to take the curve of the earth into account or else you could land miles away from your actual destination. Also, flight navigators have to find locations based on longitude and latitude.