if the earth is rotating at 1200mph clockwise for example, and a plane was traveling at 1200mph clockwise, would the people on the plane feel weightlessness, would there be no gravity on the plane?

The photograph (right) was taken near Maldon, Essex, in the UK, looking directly overhead. It appears to show the result of an aircraft flying through thin cloud and dispersing it along its flight path. If an aircraft was responsible it had long since passed when the picture was taken. Is this a common sight and what mix of conditions is required to produce the effect?

The photograph (above) was taken near Maldon, Essex, in the UK, looking directly overhead. It appears to show the result of an aircraft flying through thin cloud and dispersing it along its flight path. If an aircraft was responsible it had long since passed when the picture was taken. Is this a common sight and what mix of conditions is required to produce the effect?

Neil Sinclair, Chelmsford, Essex, UK

On the news recently I heard of yet another search for the black box flight-data recorders from a missing aircraft. Why is this data not transmitted periodically to a satellite or ground station so that in the event of the unexplained loss of an aircraft, it would be readily available?

Peter Cole, Sark, Channel Islands

This has been on my mind for some time but I couldn't think of a good cover story so I put off asking.  There is none, I am not writing a James Bond novel &c. I just have a morbid imagination and need help with the maths. 

So if a person, A, (James Bond, Chumpington Bleakly, whoever) were to make a parachute jump from an aeroplane with a noose around his neck connected to B, (an anvil) which is also pushed from said aeroplane I'm thinking that (forgive my limited understanding of things if this is wrong) B's terminal velocity is going to be greater than A's and a force will be exerted on A's neck.  Would the force be great enough to invertihang A before the descent is complete without recourse to the parachute?

On a long haul flight I wondered with the amount of people who now fly, and the amount of money airlines make, surely one that was as big as an Airbus yet as fast as a concorde would certainly dominate the market in which people want to use.

I am not only concerned with cost as I am sure they would make the money back, but is it possible to make such a big plane fly so fast? 

Sometimes I don't hear a plane until it makes a loud, sudden, decelleration sort of sound - which I describe as it dropping out of warp - and then just normal jet-like noises after that. Before that, silence! So how? Why don't I hear the plane until that point and what creates the noise? I tried to google this but was unsure how to spell 'beewooooooo' to get the right response...