Aircraft track affected by Coriolis?

[turbojet28]

Why is it that an aircraft's path doesn't seem to be affected by the Coriolis force, much like the movement of an airmass? It would seem that since an aircraft is in flight and detatched from the ground, once you "aim" for a certain point, your path should deflect due to earth's rotation, much like we have always learned when studying weather, etc. Perhaps I am just having a brain fart, or I am just not thinking about the problem with all factors considered.

[tgrayson]

Originally Posted by turbojet28

Why is it that an aircraft's path doesn't seem to be affected by the Coriolis force, much like the movement of an airmass?

Since the aircraft flies in an airmass, and the airmass is affected by the Coriolis pseudo-force, the aircraft is influenced by the Coriolis effect. Even in the absence of an atmosphere, the aircraft would see the same phenomenon, but it would likely be small. Aircraft fly much faster than the wind and shorter distances.

[Realms09]

Coriolis (pseudo) force is a function of the airplane's velocity relative to the rotating reference frame and the speed at which that frame rotates. In this case the rotating reference frame is the Earth, which rotates at a rate of 360 degrees per day, or 0.0000727 radians per second (360 degrees = 2*pi radians). The velocity of the aircraft relative to the Earth is the groundspeed. The highest possible magnitude of the Coriolis pseudo force is given by

2 X Rotation rate of the Earth X Groundspeed

Assuming a groundspeed of 500 knots (257 m/s) gives a Coriolis magnitude of

2 X 0.0000727 X 257 = 0.0374 m/s^2

Normalize this by acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s^2) to give a Coriolis pseudo force equal to 0.0038 G's. It just ain't much to worry about, and it doesn't do anything to your toilet either.