Flight Reaches 801 MPH Jet Stream

dhaughton99

A Virgin Atlantic flight from Los Angeles to London peaked at a whopping 801 mph Monday evening 35,000 feet over Pennsylvania. "[N]ever ever seen this kind of tailwind in my life as a commercial pilot," tweeted Peter James, a jet captain.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/02/19/flight-reaches-mph-furious-jet-stream-packs-record-breaking-speeds/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.79a92e2d5f7a

munchkin_utd

dhaughton99 wrote: »

A Virgin Atlantic flight from Los Angeles to London peaked at a whopping 801 mph Monday evening 35,000 feet over Pennsylvania. "[N]ever ever seen this kind of tailwind in my life as a commercial pilot," tweeted Peter James, a jet captain.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/02/19/flight-reaches-mph-furious-jet-stream-packs-record-breaking-speeds/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.79a92e2d5f7a

thats a whopping 1289.08 km/h in non UK/ USA measurements.

jesus, thats fairly moving along.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Isn’t that supersonic?

banie01

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Isn’t that supersonic?

Yep, one would wonder what the effect of a tailwind assisted speed would have on Mach number and compressibility?

Simple_Simone

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Isn’t that supersonic?

From the linked Washington Post article:

... you might notice something suspect about the 801 mph reading — it’s above the speed of sound (767 mph). However, whether air travel breaks the sound barrier is dependent on its airspeed — not its ground speed .........................

In other words, an airspeed exceeding the speed of sound was not attained. Commercial aircraft are generally not designed to fly at supersonic speeds.

faoiarvok

banie01 wrote: »

Yep, one would wonder what the effect of a tailwind assisted speed would have on Mach number and compressibility?

The aircraft is moving in a stream of air that is moving in (generally) the same direction as it, so the true airspeed is basically the ground speed minus the tailwind.

crisco10

faoiarvok wrote: »

The aircraft is moving in a stream of air that is moving in (generally) the same direction as it, so the true airspeed is basically the ground speed minus the tailwind.

but what if its on a treadmill? ;)

Chris_5339762

Or what if everyone jumped just as it was about to land

Gaoth Laidir

Nothing to see here. It happens regularly over the Atlantic. This is just referring to the New York area and is therefore a nice piece of clickbait.

The title of the thread is very misleading and implies the jet stream was 801 mph. That's Jupiter-esque.