Would it not be more fuel and time efficient for an air vehicle to rise vertically, and descend after 12 hrs (travelling only along longitudes if necessary), by which time the Earth would have completed half a rotation?

At New York's latitude, the speed of the Earth's rotation is about 800 MPH (and at San Francisco's latitude, it's about 830 MPH). That's more than a thousand feet per second. When you jump up, do you often find yourself landing far from home?

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