Pretty bird. I wonder how hard they are to fly with that bubble wrap on the controls/
I’m not certain that attaining M.995 in a dive qualifies it as “the world’s fastest civil aircraft.” Seems to me that appellation should go to the aircraft that attains the highest Vh, not Vd.
TC
I agree , Vh , Vne or Vno would be better ... I believe many commercial jets have a Vne similar to this number and can reach it in a shallow dive.
The bubble wrap is there to give the pilots something to do when on auto-pilot. Previously coloring books were used, but the crayon and crayon shavings got smooshed in cabin spaces, not to mention the best picture pages being colored first caused cabin tensions, much like the previous practice of using ‘Knock-knock’ jokes.