I've been high enough to see the curvature of the earth. You can do it on a few mountain tops in the US as well. But anywase, most of you all get a little port hole on the side of the airplane, but when you get a panoramic view from up front at as low as 30,000 feet you can see the curvature of the earth.
Nope.
TheEngineer, a pilot who posts on this forum, tells us that the horizon of the earth is not curved from the air.
Quote:
"I believe I said that I put myself through college working for an airline, thus having access to free flights around the world. I also worked for a private FBO, in which the owner owned a Cessna Citation. I am also a licensed pilot. Not once, during any of the hundreds if not thousands of flights I've been on, have I ever witnessed the curvature of the Earth."
So if you agree with what someone posts on the forum, then that becomes accepted fact to you? Interesting.
Here's a picture I took 19 years ago from a 747 over the Pacific ocean with a 50mm lens (i.e. normal perspective -- not wide angle).
Here are my observations:
1. The horizon in the picture is curved
2. The sun's rays are not curved
3. The plane's wing is not curved (maybe slightly upward from the bending caused by flight, but not like the horizon)
4. The only distortion I see for sure is the squashing of the sun (which usually appears round) in to an oblate spheroid, presumably caused by the air.
5. The bottom of the sun is getting cut off because it's disappearing behind the ocean.
6. The sun does not appear to be 3000 miles above the plane.
If you claim the curve is caused by the distortion of the glass, then see #'s 2-3.
If you claim the curve is caused by the atmospheric distortion, then tell me why the squashed sun is symmetrical (except for the non-visible part) rather than distorted the same as the horizon.
If the sun circles over the disk of the earth at 3000 miles or so, then at roughly 6 miles above the ocean, it should still have been well above me.
The view from a regular passenger window of a 747 at ~35000-40000 feet is consistent with RET and not with FET.