High Speed with Tailwind
Dec 19, 2016 | 3:19 pm
#16
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And sometimes unavoidable. Was in a similar situation on a NW DC-10 from HNL-NRT plodding along at what seemed to be a very leisurely pace. Connection time dwindled so much the NW ground team in NRT had to gather all the pax connecting to BKK in a van as there was only 1/2 hr connecting time left (and the plane parked remotely).
Dec 19, 2016 | 4:15 pm
#17
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Of course, there are limits to how fast, or how slow, you can practically go.
Dec 19, 2016 | 5:46 pm
#19
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I forgot about another flight. YOW-LHR on a CP 763. Flight was held back at YOW for about 2 hours otherwise arrival would be way before arrival slot time. Can't remember the exact flight time but maybe 5 hours which would have implied an average speed of 660 mph on great circle distance.
Dec 19, 2016 | 6:32 pm
#20
Join Date: Jul 2006
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I've seen over 700 mph on CX HKG-JFK several times. Those flights tend not to fly the great circle route, but rather south of Alaska entering the North American land mass close to Vancouver. JFK-HKG tends to be closer to the great circle, going polar and flying across Siberia and the PRC. Love that flight.
Dec 19, 2016 | 8:30 pm
#21
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Mrs. Milepig and I once left NRT at almost the same time. She was flying NRT-ORD and I NRT-LAX before changing to an ORD flight. She caught the tail winds and when I called from LAX as soon as I landed she was already home in our living room.
Dec 19, 2016 | 11:05 pm
#22
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JFK-LHR in 5hrs 16mins on a BA 772:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...cord-time.html
414kts in a Mooney sounds terrifying!
http://www.groundspeedrecords.com/in...yid=2016#12125
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...cord-time.html
groudspeedrecords.com is always a fun site to browse.
http://www.groundspeedrecords.com/in...yid=2016#12125
Dec 19, 2016 | 11:48 pm
#24
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Dec 20, 2016 | 1:47 am
#25
Join Date: Mar 2012
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750mph ground speed is the best I've experienced, on a 777 IAH to LHR flight with a 200mph tailwind from reaching cruising altitude to the east coast and well above 100mph for much of the crossing. A sub nine hour flight, but like a rollercoaster ride.
Dec 20, 2016 | 7:12 am
#26
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1,268 kilometres/hour, which is 787 miles/hour on a SQ flight from SIN to SYD many years ago with a ~300km/hour tailwind. The speed was reported by both the inflight system and my GPS (with a 2km/hour difference between the two)
Yes, that's technically faster than the speed of sound, but as it's relative to the air around the plane we weren't actually above the sound limit (obviously!)
Yes, that's technically faster than the speed of sound, but as it's relative to the air around the plane we weren't actually above the sound limit (obviously!)
Dec 21, 2016 | 6:45 am
#28
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for every tail, there is a head wind. we once had to stop in iceland to gas up on a muc-iad flight. very cold, and lots of wind. we got dumped on the tarmac in the dark, and were told not to let go of the rope(ran from plane to airport)
bought lots of iclandic wool sweaters
came back recently from lhr to iAd. we dropped south of england, and did not take great circle route. head winds were under 10 knts.
bought lots of iclandic wool sweaters
came back recently from lhr to iAd. we dropped south of england, and did not take great circle route. head winds were under 10 knts.
Dec 21, 2016 | 8:10 am
#29
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While this is true, aircraft aren't on rails like trains. They don't have to follow fixed routes. They often deviate from a great circle route if better winds make up for the added distance, by either catching tailwinds or avoiding headwinds. Airline flight planning departments are very good at optimizing this sort of thing, so the number of flights that are significantly impacted by headwinds is less than the number that are significantly improved by tailwinds.
Dec 21, 2016 | 9:03 am
#30
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While this is true, aircraft aren't on rails like trains. They don't have to follow fixed routes. They often deviate from a great circle route if better winds make up for the added distance, by either catching tailwinds or avoiding headwinds. Airline flight planning departments are very good at optimizing this sort of thing, so the number of flights that are significantly impacted by headwinds is less than the number that are significantly improved by tailwinds.
Flightaware shows you the actual distance flown for historical flights and so I looked up our flight and percentage wise it was a good double digits longer than the Great Circle route. One of the days around it the flight was over 5000 miles because of how far north the flight went! Compared to the usual 3677 straight line that's incredible. I think the flying time was about 9hrs 30mins or so...on LHR-IAD!