[OldDeckHand]

The article that you linked to had another link to an article I found fascinating. It may be found here. Essentially, it says that the original 707 traveled almost 150 mph faster than what the modern passenger jet flies. We're getting slower, not faster. That's irritating.

One of the few regrets I have in life is that I never had the opportunity to fly the Concord, and by "opportunity", I mean I couldn't afford it.

[mgstarr]

I saw that as well. WIRED has some dandy tech articles. Sadly can’t be posted here :-(

[petertare]

Well, I might suggest your numbers are somewhat erroneous. Yes, newer aircraft generally cruise slower than earlier designs. Primarily because:

—newer aircraft tend to be designed to operate at slower cruise speeds to optimize fuel savings (fuel is costly these days and a bigger share of operating expense)

—more aircraft in the sky inevitably results in aircraft in trail enroute destinations—thus all are traveling at more or less the speed of the slowest in the line (antiquadated air traffic control requirements)

—a 727 or 707 would routinely cruise at mach .82 to .85
nowadays most aircraft are operated about .77 or so

that does not equate to a 150 mph difference—more like a 60-70 mph difference (at altitude)

Regards

[Nowhere Man]

The article that you linked to had another link to an article I found fascinating. It may be found here. Essentially, it says that the original 707 traveled almost 150 mph faster than what the modern passenger jet flies. We're getting slower, not faster. That's irritating.

One of the few regrets I have in life is that I never had the opportunity to fly the Concord, and by "opportunity", I mean I couldn't afford it.

Yeah, I think the 707 and DC-8's can do 650 MPH, the 767 can go 530 MPH, if you coax it, 568 MPH. Come to think of it, I think the Russians can get their TU-114 turboprop to go 545 MPH. Back to the DC-8, IIRC, technically, it was the first "supersonic airliner," they managed to coax one to go above Mach 1 but barely.