Originally Posted by
jonkster
I have looked at that site.
You state (when discussing an aircraft, in a steady wind, doing a constant rate turn)
I don't get what you are saying and it seems to be the crux of your argument.
1. You can only get an acceleration by applying a net force.
The only force, acting on the aircraft, "caused" by the earth, is gravity.
Yet you seem to argue that somehow the earth acts to accelerate the aircraft laterally. How? What force is this, where does it come from and how does it act on the aircraft?
2. That spiral path would appear exactly the same for any circling object if it was viewed from a constantly moving point of reference. No additional force is required to make the spiral path. (eg one of those conical pendulums dropping sand on paper - pull the paper at a constant rate and you get the very same spiral.) Not getting where any additional force is needed to get that pattern.
I am not saying that the Earth accelerates the aircraft laterally. You have just made that up. The aircraft is accelerated by the aerodynamic forces acting on it. Read the link again.The whole thing! There are diagrams!