Let's try another one: Hurricane and Papa Hurricane are in the backyard playing catch. Unfortunately, they run through an endless supply of baseballs, because every time Papa Hurricane throws one, it zooms by at 900 mph. I'm even worse off, since mine never reach him. This is applying the same logic you used to describe flight.
The atmosphere is effectively part of earth, sort of like the skin on an apple, and so rotates with the earth. Right now, sitting at my desk, I am moving at 900 mph, but I don't feel it because so is everything else. When I go for a jog, I am technically running at 908 mph, but only 8 mph can be noticed on earth because everything is also moving at 900 mph.
Let's demonstrate the catch experiment again: My father and I are currently playing catch in the cargo bay of a C-17 aircraft flying at 20,000 feet and 350 knots. When I throw a baseball, relative to the earth, it's moving at 350 kts + whatever velocity I threw it at, say for a total velocity of 400 kts. However, my Dad can still catch it since relative to the aircraft, it's only going 50 kts. Relative to the universe, the baseball is moving at 1300+ kts. Make sense?




