London and Sydney are on opposite sides of Earth. They’re roughly 16,988 kilometers apart. That’s 10,556 miles of sky. You could fly from New York to Los Angeles four times in that distance.
And here’s the weird part: your flight path curves. Planes don’t fly straight. They follow a great circle route—the shortest curve over the Earth’s surface. That path takes you over Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
You’ll pass countries you’ve never thought about. You might see the Himalayas from 35,000 feet. It’s a geography lesson at cruising altitude.
