• @[email protected]
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    01 day ago

    It is flying in a straight line, but is doing so around the edge of a sphere. The map is distorted to project the sphere onto a flat image.

    • @[email protected]
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      1524 hours ago

      No, it’s not. It’s noth of the equator, so the straight line route would look like a curve towards the north. This route is curved south, which means it’s actually because of air traffic control routing them along approved flight paths. That might be for traffic management reasons, or because of terrain on the route, or restricted airspace.

      • @[email protected]
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        -123 hours ago

        While I have no reason to suspect you’re wrong, the idiot in the original image is almost certainly trying to imply a flat Earth. Your clarification would not be well-received by someone like them.

        Pearls before swine and all that.

    • @[email protected]
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      31 day ago

      And to add, planes have been flying like this for decades, and curvature of the earth is part of calculating important things like fuel requirements.