A Virgin Atlantic flight from Los Angeles to London has broken a speed record, thanks to a strong jet stream over the east coast of the US.
Virgin Atlantic Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner seen landing at London Heathrow International Airport, UK. Image by Nicolas Economou/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner hit just the right conditions to reach the incredible milestone, though only briefly. Richard Branson, Virgin’s founder, tweeted that the flight had flown “fly faster than any other commercial non-supersonic plane in history at 801 mph,” noting that the speed of sound is 767 mph. While the plane did hit a ground speed of 801 mph, whether it breaks the sound barrier is dependent on airspeed, not ground speed. However, the speed is much higher than the Dreamliner’s average cruising airspeed of just 561 mph, which means the tailwind gave the flight quite a boost.
Since the weather wasn’t cooperating with @VirginGalactic this morning, @VirginAtlantic decided to fly faster than any other commercial non-supersonic plane in history at 801 mph (the speed of sound is 767mph) https://t.co/QMDNZ2NCZY #readbyrichard
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) February 20, 2019
According to the flight-tracking website FlightAware, the flight caught the jet stream over the northeast of the US, and arrived in London 48 minutes early. However, even though that flight beat its schedule, it still lasted a total of 9 hours and 34 minutes.
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