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Record-Breaking Jet Stream Accelerates Air Travel, Flight Clocks In At 801 MPH (cbsnews.com)
pgmrdlm quotes CBS News: On Monday night, the river of air 35,000 feet above the New York City area, known as the jet stream, clocked in at a blazing 231 mph. This is the fastest jet stream on record since 1957 for the National Weather Service in Upton, New York — breaking the old record of 223 mph, according to NWS forecaster Carlie Buccola. This wind provided a turbo boost to commercial passenger planes along for the ride. With the help of this rapid tailwind, Virgin Atlantic Flight 8 from Los Angeles to London hit what could be a record high speed for a Boeing 787: 801 mph over Pennsylvania at 9:20 p.m. Monday night...
"The typical cruising speed of the Dreamliner is 561 mph," CBS News transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave points out. "The past record for the 787 is 776 mph set in January 2017 by a Norwegian 787-9 flying from JFK to London Gatwick. That flight set a record for the fastest subsonic transatlantic commercial airline flight -- 5 hours and 13 minutes, thanks to a 202 mph tailwind."
FlightAware, a global aviation data services company, reminds CBS that even a 100 mph increase in the jet stream can shorten a flight by an hour.
"The typical cruising speed of the Dreamliner is 561 mph," CBS News transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave points out. "The past record for the 787 is 776 mph set in January 2017 by a Norwegian 787-9 flying from JFK to London Gatwick. That flight set a record for the fastest subsonic transatlantic commercial airline flight -- 5 hours and 13 minutes, thanks to a 202 mph tailwind."
FlightAware, a global aviation data services company, reminds CBS that even a 100 mph increase in the jet stream can shorten a flight by an hour.
Flights in the other direction can usually be re-routed to a different altitude or route where the jet stream is not as strong. Likewise flights in the same direction as the jet stream can be preferentially routed to take advantage of it it's strong.
I was on a flight from Asia to the U.S. which benefited from a particularly strong jet stream and arrived 3 hours early (11 hours instead of 14 hours). For that, we were punished by having to stay in the plane at the gate for nearly 2 hours, since the Customs and Immigration employees hadn't yet arrived for work that morning to process arrivals. I would imagine it's the same for domestic flights if there's insufficient room at the gates. The plane would probably have to stay somewhere on the tarmac until a gate opened up. I suppose that objectively it's slightly better for the passengers (same amount of time aboard the plane, but it's quieter). But subjectively, it's rather frustrating knowing that you're already at the destination, but are prohibited from deplaning by logistics.
I and the world have no idea how fast or how high up that is. Scientist should be using the Metric system like everyone else which makes it easier to understand and do calculations with.
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