Posted on 02/20/2019 1:34:02 AM PST by C19fan
A Virgin Atlantic flight from Los Angeles to London reached the ground speed of 801 mph with the help of strong winds, according to reports. The blistering speed was reached while at 35,000 feet above Pennsylvania. The Boeing 787 twin-jet aircraft was given a boost by a furious jet stream, the high-altitude air current along which storms travel.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Its news for those of us that have an interest, were or are in aviation. No interest than move along nothing for you to see.
Is that faster than a fully laden swallow?
It depends. Is the swallow healthy or not quite dead yet?
🤣
Acrican swallow?
"...Department of Redundancy Department..."
You are correct, and beat me by 15 posts!
(I did not see yours, but that’s because I didn’t see it. /redundant)
My favorite redundancy from TV was the junior weather man in Binghamton NY saying “We have a mass of cold Canadian air coming down out of Canada...”!
Relatively no.
I was stationed at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, in 84-86. I was a Huey crew chief, my unit was the 283rd Medivac, they were reformed under another Blackhawk unit from Hawaii I think. Anyway, we flew a lot, in bad weather and good, our take off and landing wind speed restriction was 30 knots. We flew many times with ground winds under 30 knots, but in the air, flying less than 10,000 ft, mostly in the 2000 to 3000 ft range, and around the mountains, we encountered wind speeds in excess of 50 to 60, that was a real rodeo in a helicopter, so I know a little about how rough that flight of yours was. I don’t think I would’ve made your flight without painting the inside of the plane with my lunch.
Speed of sound still 750 mph but you must be traveling that speed in relation to the wind. To the plane in the wind it’s still only going 500-600. No sonic booms. No structural problems.
Grabs it by the husk.
You've truly mangled it.
The speed of sound in the air is about 767 mph depending on temperature. As this aircraft exceeded it over Pennsylvania, how come there were no reports of sonic booms in the news?
However, Sonic booms due to large supersonic aircraft can be particularly loud and may cause minor damage to some structures. This is why commercial supersonic flight over the US and Europe has been banned since 1973. The speed can only be attained while over large bodies of water. One of the main reasons the SST was retired besides expense of being a play toy for the rich that couldn’t pay for itself. It took almost 15,000 gallons of fuel just to reach altitude and not when the aircraft was supersonic as advertised. And even when it was flying supersonic is was using almost 6800 gallons an hour. That’s a lot of hay for that thoroughbred for the hype.
Furthermore, jet streams cause turbulence. It’s a result of the vertical and horizontal wind shear associated with jet streams, and pilots can’t see it coming because it isn’t associated with a weather pattern. To avoid turbulence pilots will fly to higher or lower altitudes to get beneath or above the jet stream they are experiencing.
For moderate or extreme turbulence, pilots are trained to slow the aircraft down to the appropriate “maneuvering speed” for the aircraft’s current weight. This protects the aircraft in that if it encounters extreme turbulence, the aircraft wings will essentially “stall” before the aircraft is damaged. This simply is a design feature that protects the aircraft’s structure. As this is the case, the pilots put the aircraft and its passengers in a dangerous situation.
rwood
Snowstorm Reaches 3 Feet Due To Snow
I could see it being an item of general interest, as in “Did you know that airplanes in a jet stream can attain ground speeds in excess of 800 mph?” Then follow with an article about the jet-stream. But to report that a plane reached this speed is not news, as planes frequently reach these speeds.
Some of us prefer to watch the in flight map instead of the entertainment when we fly. To me, knowing the air and ground speeds, altitude, direction, and location are far more interesting than whatever movies they offer.
Speed oof sound varies by the temperature and pressure and humidity of the “local” air around the airplane. So, at sea level, in “warm” air, the speed of sound is about 750 mph.
But up at altitude, the sound barrier reduces noticeably. So a modern jet ground speed with a following wind could be faster than the speed of sound at the ground.
WWII prop planes diving sometimes were locked in sound barrier regions and lost control: As they got lower in altitude, their speed did not change, but the speed of sound around the airplane changed, so the shock waves around the tail and wings changed shape, and (sometimes) the pilot could recover control. But many others crashed.
My thanks to you (and others) for your informative responses - I’ve always been fascinated by the “sound barrier”, and how it transitioned from an impenetrable obstacle to an almost irrelevant factor (at least for craft designed for supersonic flight).
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