A British Airways flight broke the record for the fastest subsonic flight between New York to London.
The trip took less than five hours.
At a top speed of 825 mph, the Boeing 747 flew 4 hours and 47 minutes to cross the Atlantic Ocean, landing Sunday morning in London. In the last 30 days, the average flight time for the same route often used by pilots was 6 hours and 13 minutes. Two other flights from Virgin Atlantic also made the trip in under five hours that same night.
British Airways was able to maintain its subsonic flight status despite flying well above the speed of sound, 767 mph, due to a strong tail wind that pushed the aircraft across the Atlantic. Tail winds exceeded 200 mph as the flights followed the jet streak, which is the strongest part of the jet stream.
It’s true that we were narrowly beaten by a BA Boeing 747, however they had twice the amount of engines and burnt twice as much fuel as Captain Chris in our brand new, fuel efficient Airbus A350-1000 ?
— Virgin Atlantic (@VirginAtlantic) February 9, 2020
“It’s just astounding that they got there so quick,” Jay Spenser, a museum curator at the National Air and Space Museum, told the New York Times. The previous record was held by a Norwegian Air flight that made the subsonic trip in 5 hours and 13 minutes.
The strong tail winds were attributed to a hurricane near the United Kingdom that grounded many flights in the area earlier in the day. On the ground, parts of the nation faced damaging winds and severe flooding because of the storm.
Chip Garner, a spokesman for British Airlines, said the flight was safe despite the stormy conditions on the ground. He said, “We always prioritize safety over speed records, but our highly trained pilots made the most of the conditions to get customers back to London well ahead of time.”
The British Airlines flight was able to carry 400 passengers on the same amount of fuel as the 100-passenger Concorde, a retired line of supersonic aircrafts that could cross the Atlantic in three and a half hours, due to the boost from Mother Nature. The airline said passengers were largely unaware of the speed of the flight until the descent into London began well ahead of schedule.
While passengers from New York to London zoomed to their destination, those headed from London to New York were not so lucky. Strong head winds added an hour and 49 minutes to the flight.
