Posted on 01/19/2021 9:39:57 AM PST by Onthebrink
When it comes to getting from point A to point B, taking to the air is the quickest way possible, obviously. For commercial fliers, nothing was faster than the British-French designed Concorde SST, which could reach Mach 2.04 (2,180 km/h) at cruise altitude. The supersonic transport had an excellent safety record until 2000 when Air France flight 4590 crashed just after taking off from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. It re-entered service, but rising costs grounded the plane permanently three years later.
The Concorde’s record for cross Atlantic commercial travel has yet to be beaten, but when it comes to raw speed there are many aircraft that would leave the Concorde SST in the proverbial dust, and certainly some contrails. Here is our take on what we would argue are the five fastest planes ever to fly.
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
The Concorde crash can hardly be blamed on that plane...
Why would anyone want to kilometer?
It all comes down to fuel economy. As you approach Mach 1, your drag and fuel consumption go way up.
I’m not sure I would want to put the X-15 in the list since it is a rocket.
A-12, SR-71 are the same plane from the same design. A F-18A and a F-18C and F-15A and F-15E/F are much more diffrent designs and flight programs. B-1A and B-1B is about the same difference.
A 707 and 747 and a DC10 all cruise at the same speed because designing to go any faster is just brining fuel for zero revenue gain while moving Vma higher. Vma is the speed that would be ideal to climb to cruise at. The only place to gain shorter flights is to kill the 250 under 10k rule, that has happened a lot in the past year. I watch a tremendous number of aircraft hit the top of the localizers on strait in around the world cleared for 280-300 until intercept and run 280 down hill unit the middle marker... two minutes at 30 kts over limit.... save 20 or 40 seconds and perhaps 10-15 gallons of avgas because narrow body commercial aircraft are actualy more efficent at 280 than 250. The rule has been loosened because of the number of airliners sitting idle and sequencing 200 ops a day is easier than 600.
I'm always in awe of the plane's external design. Designed in 1957 looks like it could be on the drawing board today
You assert the 747 is supersonic?😳
Speed of sound is a barrier to efficient and economical air travel. Not to mention quiet (sonic boom).
In my working days I accumulated over 1 million frequent flyer miles, I had over 700,000 years on US Air and their top frequent flyer award was round trip on the British Airways Concorde for 150,000 miles on my honeymoon my wife and I flew round trip on the Concorde, we reached Mach 2,at 65,000 feet
They are, after all, the most trusted name in news....
Huntsville Space Center has one on the front lawn.
Technically, it is an A-12 in front of the Space and Rocket Center.
William J. (Pete) Knight who flew that fastest flight in the X-15 went on to California politics and put the anti gay marriage referendum in place that was killed by the CA Supreme Court in recent years.
This one over by Space Camp
https://live.staticflickr.com/2390/2161274198_2785d39542.jpg
Perhaps we are thinking of different static dis[lays.
Nope, I take it back — you are correct. It was the earlier A-12 variant. I looked it up again.
“You know - you don’t have to live under that rock....”
Under a rock? I live in the USA, where we say “miles per hour”.
No problem. When I first saw it, I thought it was a SR-71.
Along with the Saturn V, it is one of the displays I take my friends and family to see.
No, I misread the info. Just hadn’t gotten around to posting the correction. It is still very fast for a large airliner at 583mph cruise and 681mph max
Can you post the entire article?
Yup, and a black hole swallowed up that missing Malaysia airliner...
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