occationalRedditor t1_iyf5z3e wrote
Aircraft don't hover they fly in circles. Usually an aircraft will fly around in a hold pattern which is two straight legs with semi circles at the end, often centrerd on a navigation beacon on the ground. So in that case it would stay over that location.
If an aircraft flies circles without reference to the ground. Flying the same speed all the time and turning at the same rate all the time, it would move with the airstream rather than the ground. If the wind at the aircraft's high altitude is say 100kts (nautical miles per hour) then it would move in the wind direction at 100kts (115mph, 185 kph) along the ground while appearing to just fly in circles.
If the aircraft left the atmosphere (above 100km, but wings struggle much lower) it wouldn't be using aerodynamics at all and it would have to keep itself up by going a lot faster so it couldn't stay still over a point on the earth until reaching geostationary altitudes at 35,000km amd speeds of 3 km/sec (67,000 mph).
JoyGodLives OP t1_iyf6imu wrote
Interesting, thank you!
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments