A British Airways Boeing 747 aircraft broke the record for the fastest-ever subsonic flight between New York and London, reaching a top speed of 1,287 km per hour over the weekend.
According to CNN, the overnight flight departed from New York on Saturday and arrived in London on Sunday, clocking a time of 4 hours and 56 minutes. The plane arrived at Heathrow at 4:43 am, almost two hours ahead of schedule.
Brandon Miller, a CNN meteorologist, told CNN Travel that: ‘The flight was riding a much stronger than usual jet stream, with winds over 200 mph (321 km) propelling the aircraft.’
He continued, ‘The supercharged jet stream is also responsible for powering Storm Ciara, which has brought damaging wind gusts and massive waves to the UK, Ireland and other parts of Northern Europe this weekend.
‘The jet stream is a fast moving ‘river of air’ high in the atmosphere, around the height that commercial airliners fly. The jet stream is responsible for carrying weather systems around the planet.’
Flightradar24 announced that the flight broke the record for the fastest subsonic New York to London crossing. The record surpasses Norwegian Air’s record of five hours and 13 minutes which was set in January 2018, according to the New York Times.
Thanks to a strong, well-positioned jet stream, a @British_Airways 747 managed a new New York-London subsonic speed record today, making the journey in 4 hours 56 minutes—17 minutes faster than the previous record. https://t.co/HISXpN6Vns #BA112 pic.twitter.com/A2R42rsx14
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 9, 2020
Image: Unsplash
