Strong high-altitude winds over the Mid-Atlantic sped up sky traffic on Saturday night, getting passengers on at least two commercial planes to their destinations early, after both aircraft hit supersonic speeds topping 800 mph.
Winds at cruising altitude peaked at about 265 mph, according to the Washington, D.C., area National Weather Service office — the second-highest wind speed logged in the region since recordings began in 1948. The highest-ever wind speed recorded in the area at a similar altitude was 267 mph on Dec. 6, 2002.
“For those flying eastbound in this jet, there will be quite a tail wind,” the NWS warned in a tweet.
Sure enough, that tailwind helped cut down the flight time for passengers on a Virgin Atlantic flight from D.C. to London by 45 minutes, according to the tracker FlightAware.
Ooh, there’s another fun one…
“Indicated” airspeed isn’t actually how fast you are going relative to the air. “Indicated” airspeed is how hard the air is pushing into the front of the pitot tube. But, at high altitude, the air is thinner, and doesn’t push as hard. To get the same indicated airspeed at altitude, you have to be flying much, much faster.
Indicated airspeed is how fast the wings “think” they are moving. If the stall speed is 80kts, and the true airspeed is 200kts, but you’re so high that the wings “think” they are only moving at 75kts, the aircraft is in a stall.
Next up, “critical mach number” and “coffin corner”