Due to the strong winds generated by the storm Ciara, three planes broke the Atlantic crossing speed record yesterday Sunday.
The previous record belonged to a Norwegian Boeing 787 that flew from New York to London in 5 hours and 13 minutes on January 18, 2018, also thanks to the jet stream. A “normal” flight usually takes 6h30.
New record for British Airways
Yesterday, 3 aircraft successively “stole” its record.
– a Virgin Atlantic A350 in 4 hours and 59 minutes.
– another Virgin Atlantic A350 in 4 hours 57 minutes.
– a British Airways B747 in 4h56.
With a tailwind that reached 176 knots (326 km/h) it reached a speed of 717 knots (1327.88 km/h).
The average speed of an airliner is 900km/h but pushed by the winds in the west-east direction they can sometimes go close to 1200km/h while on the contrary in the east-west direction with headwinds they can sometimes go “only” 600 km/h.
The Concorde record untouchable
But if we want to be precise, the “real record” remains that of the Concorde, set by a British Airways aircraft in 1996 in 2h52 minutes and 59 seconds.
Besides, a question naturally comes to mind: at more than 1300 km/h the 747 would have broken the sound barrier? Well no, and we’ll explain why in a future article.
Photo : 747 British Airways by Markus Mainka via Shutterstock
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