Norwegian passenger plane 'Boeing 787-9' overtook the speed of sound and reached London from New York in just five hours and thirteen minutes. During the journey, the fight traveled at a speed of 776 miles per hour, and all credit goes to the wild 202mph jet stream. 284 passengers were on board the plane during the trip.
The journey of a lifetime
The flight, which took off from New York JFK at 11.44 AM, reached the top speed in quick time. The wind tunnel-like belt of air stretching west-east accelerated the flight's speed. Even though the flight touched the top-speed of 776 miles per hour, it did not technically go supersonic. As the plane was already going through a fast moving body of air, the velocity needed to break the barrier of sound was further increased.
After the completion of the journey, the pilot said that they could have flown much faster if conditions were more favorable.
"We could have flown faster. We were actually in the air for just over five hours and if it had not been for forecasted turbulence at lower altitude, we could have flown even faster," said Captain Van Dam.
According to Captain Van Dam, the highest ground speed during the flight was 776 miles per hour. He added that the airspeed will be much slower than ground speed.
"When flying we record groundspeed – like a car traveling on the ground - and airspeed due to the varying wind speeds experienced during flight. The highest groundspeed during the flight was 776mph, more than the speed of sound, however, airspeed is actually slower than ground speed. Therefore, our airspeed was at Mach 0.85, below Mach 1.0 needed to go supersonic and break the sound barrier," Van Dam told Mail Online.
The previous record transatlantic speed was set by a British Airways aircraft in 2015 where it reached London from New York in five hours and sixteen minutes.
