Heading No. 2
Moored above Hanoi, Vietnam
Azimuthal chart centred on Hanoi: every straight line from the centre is a shortest route at its true bearing (ranges on a square-root scale).
The bearings
| Landmark capital | Bearing | Range |
|---|---|---|
| TokyoJapan | 056° NE | 3,670 km |
| SuvaFiji | 113° ESE | 9,020 km |
| GaboroneBotswana | 243° WSW | 10,020 km |
| New DelhiIndia | 292° WNW | 3,000 km |
| LondonUnited Kingdom | 323° NW | 9,230 km |
Why
The heading that fools a flat map is the one to London (United Kingdom): on a flat world map it seems to lie west-north-west (290°), yet the shortest route sets off north-west at 323°, a 33° difference, because this great circle bows towards the North Pole. The nearest landmark capital was New Delhi (India), 3,000 km away; the farthest, Gaborone (Botswana), was 10,020 km away, 50% of the way to the far side of the globe. From Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Vientiane (Laos), all five landmarks bear within 8° of these headings, which is why the ranges matter.
Sources
Wikidata: Hanoi (capital coordinates, CC0) · Natural Earth 1:50m populated places (cross-check, public domain) · mledoze/countries (country names, ODbL)