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The 2019 List Of The Longest Flights In The World
Here is an updated list of the longest flights in the world by distance. All distances noted were verified using GCMap.com and travel times are for the longer leg and current as of January 2019. (www.forbes.com) Mais...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Distances are shown in statute mikes, probably as the news source is the USA. However Flight Aware is an aviation site, and distances should be shown in nautical miles - or possibly kilometers. Statute miles are not used for distances in aviation.
An American non-aviation publication catering to an American non-aviation readership. How terrible!
Twaddle.
It does look strange to see miles used. Presumably Forbes' target readership was American travellers. One can't help feeling embarrassed for the USA that they haven't gone metric yet.
Maybe Britain will revert after Brexit!
It's not embarrassing to me. I like the old measures, even though I am very comfortable with metric measures. The USA, with its old-style measurement system has produced some remarkable technological achievements! The metric world has nothing on us!
I hear this sentiment often, and the more I think about it, the less sense it makes. Metric’s advantage is that units scale in base 10, but the definition of the units are equally arbitrary in both systems. The only unit that’s actually based on geography is the nautical mile (one minute of latitude), but even it’s somewhat arbitrary as one minute being one 21,600th the circumference of the earth is arbitrary. I just don’t see the logic that either system is inherently superior to the other.
I wouldn’t say that the nautical mile is completely arbitrary any more than 360 degrees is arbitrary. It is a standard, and without that we have basically nothing. I’m a huge fan of the metric system (when I have to pull out a 3/16 Allen wrench at work I think, “why?”), but ten, as convenient as it is, is arbitrary. The nautical mile is based on *something* and that makes it useful. I guess the meter is based on some fraction of some distance between two places (right? I could be wrong about that) but I think they’re arbitrary. The circumference of the earth is not.
I agree; my point was just that, for those who complain the Imperial system is “arbitrary”, ultimately everything is arbitrary to an extent, and we have to use something or else nothing would get done. I’m just not a fan of elitist and condescending attitudes, so I feel I have to chime in whenever I hear the usual spiel about how inferior we Americans are at everything. ;)
(FWIW, I’m an engineer, so I primarily work in metric, but I learned both in college, and I can honestly say I don’t really have a preference.)
(FWIW, I’m an engineer, so I primarily work in metric, but I learned both in college, and I can honestly say I don’t really have a preference.)