Records are meant to be broken. For example, take the longest field goal at the Super Bowl. That record was set not once but twice during Super Bowl 58. Enough about sports. This is a travel website, and therefore, we wrote about how a China Airlines flight over the Pacific Ocean reached a land speed of 826 MPH. Speeds over 800 MPH are rare and require an extremely powerful jet stream to make them happen.
Now, I don’t know if this is due to climate change, but there’s an extremely powerful weather pattern in place that is causing unusual weather. For us in Florida, it means we’re still seeing daytime temperatures in the upper 50s at the end of February. But it also means there are very strong winds blowing from west to east along the jet stream. Airlines, if they choose, can alter their normal flight paths to take advantage of the high winds to shorten the length of their flights.
That’s exactly what flights did this weekend to reach ground speeds of 800+ MPH.
- VS 22 – IAD – LHR – 802 MPH
- UA 64 – EWR – LIS – 835 MPH
- AA 120 – PHL – DOH – 840 MPH
According to the Washington Post, the American Airlines flight to Doha reaching a ground speed of 840 would be a new record if people tracked these things.
A CBS report noted that the planes were operating within their normal limits, and their flight speed was well under the max allowed. It was only the surrounding airspeed which allowed them to appear to break the sound barrier.
I do have to wonder if airlines are looking for these powerful jet streams to propel flights over the ocean. They’re always looking for a way to save fuel, and if you can cut 30-60 minutes of flight time, that’s a huge cost savings.
Passengers aboard the flights are unlikely to notice any difference in the flight, except for the fact of arriving early at their destination. People flying from Europe to the US experienced the opposite as flight paths were altered to avoid these high winds.
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