British Airways 747 Just Set Subsonic Speed Record for Atlantic Crossing
martyb writes:
British Airways 747 just set subsonic speed record for Atlantic crossing:
Here's a good piece of trivia for you: what's the fastest commercial airliner in operation? As of Sunday, the answer might be "the Boeing 747"-not bad for an airliner that first entered service 50 years ago. On Saturday evening at 6:47pm ET, British Airways 747-400, tail number G-CIVP, took off from John F Kennedy (JFK) airport in New York. It landed at London's Heathrow Airport (LHR) at 4:43am local time-a crossing time of just 4 hours and 56 minutes, and a new record for subsonic aircraft.
Of course, the venerable jumbo had some help. Neither Boeing nor BA have rolled out a surprise engine upgrade, but Storm Ciara[*]-a weather disturbance currently rearranging British landscapes-gave the plane a helping hand with 200mph+ (320km/h+) tailwinds. G-CIVP set a peak ground speed of 825mph (1,327km/h), although its peak airspeed remained subsonic at around Mach 0.85.
That's a huge improvement over the prior record for a commercial, non-supersonic aircraft of 5 hours and 3 minutes!
The all-time record for any aircraft was managed in comfortably under 2 hours!
I was actually quite surprised to learn they were still in use as passenger aircraft. I'd taken a vacation 40 some-odd years ago to a Caribbean Island. I don't recall what the exact model plane it was that brought me there. But I do recall that all two dozen or so of us who were returning on a red-eye at the end of the week found ourselves as the sole passengers on a 747! Never mind trying to catch a nap with your seat in the reclined position... We just tipped up all the armrests in a center row of five seats and had plenty of space to sprawl out and sleep! If you ever get a chance to fly one before they are all retired, highly recommended to add to one's "bucket list."
*Ciara; pronuounced /EkEETMrETM/ KEER-ETM
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