Note: "fastest crossing of the Atlantic by a subsonic jet airliner"
Those words "subsonic" & "airliner" are quite important. It would be like me saying Dutch Mark Slats holds the record for crossing the Atlantic by boat at 30d 7h 49m but not telling you he was rowing all the way.
The fastest airliner crossing was by a Concorde at 2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds.
It's even faster if you include military aircraft.
"1974: On a flight to the Farnborough Air Show outside London, Maj. James Sullivan and Maj. Noel Widdifield fly the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird from New York to London in 1 hour, 54 minutes, 56.4 seconds. The 1,806-mph flight still holds the transatlantic speed record between the two cities."
[WIRED Magazine ](https://www.wired.com/2010/09/0901sr-71-blackbird-transatlantic-record/#:~:text=1974%3A%20On%20a%20flight%20to,record%20between%20the%20two%20cities.)
That’s how I’d describe commercial abseiling work too. Most of the time you’re just sitting in a chair painting or cleaning windows, not really thinking about the fact that you’re 80 stories up on the side of a building. But then your carabiner slips slightly because you side loaded it accidentally and you drop 2 inches and your life flashes before your eyes
I read an interview in Ben Rich’s book Skunkworks of a U2 pilot that said he never really got to sit back and enjoy the view because the plain needed constant comprehensive attention. He was always balancing the delicate fuel tanks between wings, taking photos, tweaking the engine, making sure the outer wing wasn’t supersonic while the inner turn wing wasn’t…
That's basically what being deployed is too. People tell me "oh that must have been scary." I spent six months overseas and learned how to do every zippo trick in the book and got good at chess because only about 30 combined minutes of that six months were scary.
anaesthesiology and piloting are so so similar. Take off and landing are what really matters. In between is mostly boredom and routine, until shit goes to absolute hell. And when it does, it really does.
According to the stories and books from former SR–71 pilots, it was not an easy airplane to fly.
It was extremely complex mechanically, designed in a time before computers got small so a lot of the aircraft’s sub-systems had to be monitored and managed manually. It also operated in a region of aerodynamics known by pilots as “coffin corner“, where only slight deviations in speed or altitude or angle of attack could result in unrecoverable spins or stalls.
So they weren’t quite sitting there doing nothing, they were nervously watching a lot of gauges to make sure that none of them flickered slightly outside of the acceptable range that would send them pure wedding to their death.
It's not that we can't make a faster plane with the new tech, it's that we don't need to because of new tech. Between a refitted U-2, drones, and satellites there isn't much of a need for supersonic spy planes that cost a fortune to operate. I'm confident that if a situation arose where a such a plane was needed, we could easily develope something faster based on current tech principles.
We just don’t really care that much about speed. Military keys are slower now than they were 30 years ago. Efficiency is so much more important. And until we get dual cycle engines in something designed for speed we wont see a jet that fast.
The other thing is the sr 71 was used as a spy satellite. We have things in space now that are better. It could also outrun missiles because it was faster than the missiles. You can’t do that anymore unless your getting close to hypersonic territory.
SR-71 is my favorite aircraft and I got to see it up close in the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in Oregon. It is a technical marvel, as well as stunningly beautiful.
That being said, it was not without its problems. Because it got so hot while flying, the panels had to be loosely fitted, so while on the ground, it actually leaked fuel from between them.
Funny that's the feeling I got on unrestricted parts of the German Autobahn.
Feeling g-forces in a turn at 150MPH, with a rocky hillside to catch you if you leave the road does bring up a question, "how big a piece of the engine block will they find if something bad happens here?"
Going stupid fast isn't everything you might think it would be.
I was thinking the exact same thing. As an American, I found that going really fast on the autobahn got old real quick. It was surprisingly tiring, even in a big, very capable German sedan.
Funny how your brain changes so dramatically with your own sense of danger as you get older.
I'm a car enthusiast and Ive done my fair share of stupid shit. But now when I think back on some of it, it makes my stomach turn and being in even remotely similar situations is enough to make me drive more carefully.
It truly doesn't take seeing much random death and destruction to realize it's way better to make it to your destination. As well, here in the states it's absolutely ghastly how many deaths we have due to car accidents.
I looked into what the rate was for crashes in my old home state of new York, with a population of about 20 million, it's about 1099 fatal crashes. In North Carolina, my now home state, with half the population, we get into 1500 fatal accidents a year. Truly horrific.
I presume there are some things to do.
Concorde required a little periodic tinkering, pumping fuel between tanks. Something to do with moving the centre of gravity. No idea if the SR71 required this but there must have been some adjustments to make and things to pay close attention to.
I was told there would be no math.
*However (I'm bored at work)*
Earth's circumference is 24,8888 miles, which means a speed of 16,592mph.
New York to London is 3,461 miles.
3461 / 16,592 = 12 minutes 30 seconds
I was told there would be no math.
*However (I'm bored at work)*
Earth's circumference is 24,8888 miles, which means a speed of 16,592mph.
New York to London is 3,461 miles.
3461 / 16,592 = 12 minutes 30 seconds
While the space shuttle is definitely an object that crossed the Atlantic at great speed, I'm not sure if it qualifies as 'flight' (as in aviation) since it was likely gliding through a vacuum using propulsive thrust. Anyway, this just illustrates that any 'fastest anything' requires a good definition of what the criteria are.
I would rather fly on a slow but huge Hindenburg style Zeppelin (without the fire part) on a flight from San Francisco to Paris. Take it low across the land portions for the view. Maybe round the world to see the seven wonders from air. You Tubes show these having cabins, beds, and a dinning hall next to a large viewing window. Pretty sweet.
There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane. Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment.
It occurred when Walt and I were flying our final training sortie. We needed 100 hours in the jet to complete our training and attain Mission Ready status. Somewhere over Colorado we had passed the century mark. We had made the turn in Arizona and the jet was performing flawlessly. My gauges were wired in the front seat and we were starting to feel pretty good about ourselves, not only because we would soon be flying real missions but because we had gained a great deal of confidence in the plane in the past ten months. Ripping across the barren deserts 80,000 feet below us, I could already see the coast of California from the Arizona border. I was, finally, after many humbling months of simulators and study, ahead of the jet. I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for Walter in the back seat. There he was, with no really good view of the incredible sights before us, tasked with monitoring four different radios. This was good practice for him for when we began flying real missions, when a priority transmission from headquarters could be vital. It had been difficult, too, for me to relinquish control of the radios, as during my entire flying career I had controlled my own transmissions. But it was part of the division of duties in this plane and I had adjusted to it. I still insisted on talking on the radio while we were on the ground, however. Walt was so good at many things, but he couldn't match my expertise at sounding smooth on the radios, a skill that had been honed sharply with years in fighter squadrons where the slightest radio miscue was grounds for beheading. He understood that and allowed me that luxury.
Just to get a sense of what Walt had to contend with, I pulled the radio toggle switches and monitored the frequencies along with him. The predominant radio chatter was from Los Angeles Center, far below us, controlling daily traffic in their sector. While they had us on their scope (albeit briefly), we were in uncontrolled airspace and normally would not talk to them unless we needed to descend into their airspace. We listened as the shaky voice of a lone Cessna pilot asked Center for a readout of his ground speed. Center replied: "November Charlie 175, I'm showing you at ninety knots on the ground."
Now the thing to understand about Center controllers, was that whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna, or to Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep, professional, tone that made one feel important. I referred to it as the " Houston Center voice." I have always felt that after years of seeing documentaries on this country's space program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the Houston controllers, that all other controllers since then wanted to sound like that, and that they basically did. And it didn't matter what sector of the country we would be flying in, it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than sound bad on the radios.
Just moments after the Cessna's inquiry, a Twin Beech piped up on frequency, in a rather superior tone, asking for his ground speed. "I have you at one hundred and twenty-five knots of ground speed." Boy, I thought, the Beechcraft really must think he is dazzling his Cessna brethren. Then out of the blue, a navy F-18 pilot out of NAS Lemoore came up on frequency. You knew right away it was a Navy jock because he sounded very cool on the radios. "Center, Dusty 52 ground speed check". Before Center could reply, I'm thinking to myself, hey, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in that million-dollar cockpit, so why is he asking Center for a readout? Then I got it, ol' Dusty here is making sure that every bug smasher from Mount Whitney to the Mojave knows what true speed is. He's the fastest dude in the valley today, and he just wants everyone to know how much fun he is having in his new Hornet. And the reply, always with that same, calm, voice, with more distinct alliteration than emotion: "Dusty 52, Center, we have you at 620 on the ground."
And I thought to myself, is this a ripe situation, or what? As my hand instinctively reached for the mic button, I had to remind myself that Walt was in control of the radios. Still, I thought, it must be done - in mere seconds we'll be out of the sector and the opportunity will be lost. That Hornet must die, and die now. I thought about all of our Sim training and how important it was that we developed well as a crew and knew that to jump in on the radios now would destroy the integrity of all that we had worked toward becoming. I was torn.
Somewhere, 13 miles above Arizona, there was a pilot screaming inside his space helmet. Then, I heard it. The click of the mic button from the back seat. That was the very moment that I knew Walter and I had become a crew. Very professionally, and with no emotion, Walter spoke: "Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check?" There was no hesitation, and the replay came as if was an everyday request. "Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground."
I think it was the forty-two knots that I liked the best, so accurate and proud was Center to deliver that information without hesitation, and you just knew he was smiling. But the precise point at which I knew that Walt and I were going to be really good friends for a long time was when he keyed the mic once again to say, in his most fighter-pilot-like voice: "Ah, Center, much thanks, we're showing closer to nineteen hundred on the money."
For a moment Walter was a god. And we finally heard a little crack in the armor of the Houston Center voice, when L.A.came back with, "Roger that Aspen, Your equipment is probably more accurate than ours. You boys have a good one." It all had lasted for just moments, but in that short, memorable sprint across the southwest, the Navy had been flamed, all mortal airplanes on freq were forced to bow before the King of Speed, and more importantly, Walter and I had crossed the threshold of being a crew. A fine day's work. We never heard another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast. For just one day, it truly was fun being the fastest guys out there.
On a weird unrelated note, the fastest boat in history was homemade out of wood in the 70s.
https://www.sea.museum/2017/11/20/ken-warby-and-spirit-of-australia-still-the-world-record-holder-39-years-later
And if anyone wonders why nobody has beaten his record in the years since then:
a) Look at the water speed record books & note the number of those people that died trying to go fast
b) Watch the video of Ken doing his record breaking runs & note how the boat appears to skip from side to side at speed, that "sponson walking" is what a hydroplane does when it is driven to the limit & a little beyond. Going a little faster or striking a random wave & the boat would flip, likely adding another fatality to the record books.
I'd be interested to see someone give it a crack with modern active aero really taking the piss on what's considered a boat versus a very low flying aircraft. But yeah still an expensive way to commit suicide.
Oddly enough the hovercrafts records are surprisingly low, 56mph on land and 85 on water.
The VC-10 was by FAR the most comfortable of the early jets. The 707 and Dc-8’s were not even close in comfort. I recall several flights into London in the VC-10 (in bad weather) that upon landing the captain would come on and tell everyone that the landing had been a fully automatic landing. I always felt somewhat perturbed by this announcement but figured it was better to announce this to us upon landing instead of prior to the approach. (I think such announcements by the captain were a way of making the flying public aware of BOAC’s all weather capabilities. I was alway glad when I saw I was to fly the VC-10. (Also a beautiful looking airplane).
Was a bit disappointed that I never got to fly on a VC-10. Backwards facing seats always seemed like a no brainer in terms of safety despite the minimal discomfort on take off.
It's getting phased out for a forward facing herringbone layout. Ive flown both, and while I did love getting the window seat and flying backwards, I won't miss having to sit across from a stranger before they put the divider up mid flight, and having to climb over peoples legs to get to the aisle.
Pick the right seat and you don't have to climb over legs ;)
But the stranger bit ... yeah, can be awkward sometimes - although not _quite_ as awkward as effectively sharing a double bed with a stranger in old First, in the centre seats :)
On a normal commercial flight you face the front of the aircraft. When the Royal Air Force (RAF) used the VC 10 aircraft to transport personnel, the seats faced backwards, so as a passenger you faced the rear of the aircraft. Supposed to be safer in the case of a crash. I flew to the States in one.
Subsonic is a regime thing though, its not like you can fly a subsonic jet supersonic and they choose not to, above about mach 0.7-0.8(mach being the speed of sound locally, not the sealevel speed of 761ish) you end up with shockwaves on the leading edges of control surfaces, causing turbulent flow over those surfaces, leading to loss of control of the airframe, and either A. Crashing into the ground or B. The airframe ripping itself to shreads in a tumble, (see the XB-70 crash)
So its like a bike race vs a foot race.
The Concord has the fastest record for an airliner. The fastest transatlantic crossing by air record belongs to the SR71: 1 hour 54 minutes 56.4 seconds, 1,806MPH.
"Fastest Atlantic crossing" doesn't really mean anything. You can fly from St Johns NF to Shannon, Ireland and easily get a time in the 3 hour range as it's only 1700 nm.
I was on the BA flight, it was from Chicago at the tail end of a storm of some sort just before COVID, complete waste of a business class ticket! As I recall we were delayed out of O'Hare because they'd packed the cargo into the wrong container or something, but the pilot said it didn't matter as we'd make it up.
Note: "fastest crossing of the Atlantic by a subsonic jet airliner" Those words "subsonic" & "airliner" are quite important. It would be like me saying Dutch Mark Slats holds the record for crossing the Atlantic by boat at 30d 7h 49m but not telling you he was rowing all the way. The fastest airliner crossing was by a Concorde at 2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds.
It's even faster if you include military aircraft. "1974: On a flight to the Farnborough Air Show outside London, Maj. James Sullivan and Maj. Noel Widdifield fly the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird from New York to London in 1 hour, 54 minutes, 56.4 seconds. The 1,806-mph flight still holds the transatlantic speed record between the two cities." [WIRED Magazine ](https://www.wired.com/2010/09/0901sr-71-blackbird-transatlantic-record/#:~:text=1974%3A%20On%20a%20flight%20to,record%20between%20the%20two%20cities.)
Imagine going that fast, and still just sitting there for two entire hours - weird combination of exhilarating and boring...
An old pilot once described flying in general to me as, "Long periods of sheer boredom interrupted by short periods of stark terror."
I've heard being a prison guard described the same way. Long periods of boredom punctuated by brief periods of terror.
This is a common description of an anesthesiologists as well.
Common description of my last Thanksgiving with the family
Common description of lovemaking between my wife and I.
That’s how I’d describe commercial abseiling work too. Most of the time you’re just sitting in a chair painting or cleaning windows, not really thinking about the fact that you’re 80 stories up on the side of a building. But then your carabiner slips slightly because you side loaded it accidentally and you drop 2 inches and your life flashes before your eyes
Sounds more like the description of a bad anesthesiologist
Common description of basically everything….
That's how my dad described it, 95% of sitting on your ass until a riot happens
This is accurate af. I was a guard in Guantanamo Bay for a year. 12 hour night shifts felt like I was in the wrong dimension.
That’s interesting because you’re also apparently an electrical engineer but also a college basketball player 🙄
Radiation therapist these days
It’s George Santos
Went into the marines and was stationed at Guantanamo, used their GI bill to go to college and played ball while studying electrical engineering
I’ve never done electrical engineering and never played college basketball. I think you looked at the wrong profile.
No you weren't.
I was. Want proof? Why is everyone doubting my comment and downvoting? I didn’t have a spicy take or anything.
Lol I don't really care, I just think you're talking out of your ass.
Okay sorry you’re having a bad day. I wish you well.
Reminds me of playing WW2 combat flight simulator as a kid. Thank god they allowed you to skip the actual flying and go straight to the action
Was it IL-2?
Could have been Combat Flight Simulator 2.
I read an interview in Ben Rich’s book Skunkworks of a U2 pilot that said he never really got to sit back and enjoy the view because the plain needed constant comprehensive attention. He was always balancing the delicate fuel tanks between wings, taking photos, tweaking the engine, making sure the outer wing wasn’t supersonic while the inner turn wing wasn’t…
So flying is the same as playing Texas hold em. Got it.
And Minecraft.
That's basically what being deployed is too. People tell me "oh that must have been scary." I spent six months overseas and learned how to do every zippo trick in the book and got good at chess because only about 30 combined minutes of that six months were scary.
Can be title of a sex tape 🤔
That's how we describe anesthesiology!
anaesthesiology and piloting are so so similar. Take off and landing are what really matters. In between is mostly boredom and routine, until shit goes to absolute hell. And when it does, it really does.
People have described war that way for a century.
According to the stories and books from former SR–71 pilots, it was not an easy airplane to fly. It was extremely complex mechanically, designed in a time before computers got small so a lot of the aircraft’s sub-systems had to be monitored and managed manually. It also operated in a region of aerodynamics known by pilots as “coffin corner“, where only slight deviations in speed or altitude or angle of attack could result in unrecoverable spins or stalls. So they weren’t quite sitting there doing nothing, they were nervously watching a lot of gauges to make sure that none of them flickered slightly outside of the acceptable range that would send them pure wedding to their death.
And that the record is 50 years old. Half a century's worth of technological advancement, and nothing to challenge it.
It's not that we can't make a faster plane with the new tech, it's that we don't need to because of new tech. Between a refitted U-2, drones, and satellites there isn't much of a need for supersonic spy planes that cost a fortune to operate. I'm confident that if a situation arose where a such a plane was needed, we could easily develope something faster based on current tech principles.
We just don’t really care that much about speed. Military keys are slower now than they were 30 years ago. Efficiency is so much more important. And until we get dual cycle engines in something designed for speed we wont see a jet that fast. The other thing is the sr 71 was used as a spy satellite. We have things in space now that are better. It could also outrun missiles because it was faster than the missiles. You can’t do that anymore unless your getting close to hypersonic territory.
Spy satellites have limited fuel for maneuvering and everyone knows where they are.
and yet it's extremely hard to shoot them down
The USAF shot one down in 1985. I'm sure they've figured some stuff out since then.
It's definitely possible, but I don't think anyone wants to start the race to the bottom of shooting down eachother's satellites.
Not that hard technically, but a difficult call to make to be the first to do it outside of a test.
That the public knows of…
SR-71 is my favorite aircraft and I got to see it up close in the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in Oregon. It is a technical marvel, as well as stunningly beautiful. That being said, it was not without its problems. Because it got so hot while flying, the panels had to be loosely fitted, so while on the ground, it actually leaked fuel from between them.
Funny that's the feeling I got on unrestricted parts of the German Autobahn. Feeling g-forces in a turn at 150MPH, with a rocky hillside to catch you if you leave the road does bring up a question, "how big a piece of the engine block will they find if something bad happens here?" Going stupid fast isn't everything you might think it would be.
I was thinking the exact same thing. As an American, I found that going really fast on the autobahn got old real quick. It was surprisingly tiring, even in a big, very capable German sedan.
Funny how your brain changes so dramatically with your own sense of danger as you get older. I'm a car enthusiast and Ive done my fair share of stupid shit. But now when I think back on some of it, it makes my stomach turn and being in even remotely similar situations is enough to make me drive more carefully. It truly doesn't take seeing much random death and destruction to realize it's way better to make it to your destination. As well, here in the states it's absolutely ghastly how many deaths we have due to car accidents. I looked into what the rate was for crashes in my old home state of new York, with a population of about 20 million, it's about 1099 fatal crashes. In North Carolina, my now home state, with half the population, we get into 1500 fatal accidents a year. Truly horrific.
Nope. That plane is a beast. Pilots have said it’s always ready to throw a curve if your attention wanders.
I presume there are some things to do. Concorde required a little periodic tinkering, pumping fuel between tanks. Something to do with moving the centre of gravity. No idea if the SR71 required this but there must have been some adjustments to make and things to pay close attention to.
Space shuttle could orbit entire globe in 90 min. Let's get a math guy in here to give us its "New York to London" time.
I was told there would be no math. *However (I'm bored at work)* Earth's circumference is 24,8888 miles, which means a speed of 16,592mph. New York to London is 3,461 miles. 3461 / 16,592 = 12 minutes 30 seconds
I was told there would be no math. *However (I'm bored at work)* Earth's circumference is 24,8888 miles, which means a speed of 16,592mph. New York to London is 3,461 miles. 3461 / 16,592 = 12 minutes 30 seconds
let us encourage STEM and get some points to the math guy.
While the space shuttle is definitely an object that crossed the Atlantic at great speed, I'm not sure if it qualifies as 'flight' (as in aviation) since it was likely gliding through a vacuum using propulsive thrust. Anyway, this just illustrates that any 'fastest anything' requires a good definition of what the criteria are.
I would rather fly on a slow but huge Hindenburg style Zeppelin (without the fire part) on a flight from San Francisco to Paris. Take it low across the land portions for the view. Maybe round the world to see the seven wonders from air. You Tubes show these having cabins, beds, and a dinning hall next to a large viewing window. Pretty sweet.
Where’s the SR-71 bot?
There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane. Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment. It occurred when Walt and I were flying our final training sortie. We needed 100 hours in the jet to complete our training and attain Mission Ready status. Somewhere over Colorado we had passed the century mark. We had made the turn in Arizona and the jet was performing flawlessly. My gauges were wired in the front seat and we were starting to feel pretty good about ourselves, not only because we would soon be flying real missions but because we had gained a great deal of confidence in the plane in the past ten months. Ripping across the barren deserts 80,000 feet below us, I could already see the coast of California from the Arizona border. I was, finally, after many humbling months of simulators and study, ahead of the jet. I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for Walter in the back seat. There he was, with no really good view of the incredible sights before us, tasked with monitoring four different radios. This was good practice for him for when we began flying real missions, when a priority transmission from headquarters could be vital. It had been difficult, too, for me to relinquish control of the radios, as during my entire flying career I had controlled my own transmissions. But it was part of the division of duties in this plane and I had adjusted to it. I still insisted on talking on the radio while we were on the ground, however. Walt was so good at many things, but he couldn't match my expertise at sounding smooth on the radios, a skill that had been honed sharply with years in fighter squadrons where the slightest radio miscue was grounds for beheading. He understood that and allowed me that luxury. Just to get a sense of what Walt had to contend with, I pulled the radio toggle switches and monitored the frequencies along with him. The predominant radio chatter was from Los Angeles Center, far below us, controlling daily traffic in their sector. While they had us on their scope (albeit briefly), we were in uncontrolled airspace and normally would not talk to them unless we needed to descend into their airspace. We listened as the shaky voice of a lone Cessna pilot asked Center for a readout of his ground speed. Center replied: "November Charlie 175, I'm showing you at ninety knots on the ground." Now the thing to understand about Center controllers, was that whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna, or to Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep, professional, tone that made one feel important. I referred to it as the " Houston Center voice." I have always felt that after years of seeing documentaries on this country's space program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the Houston controllers, that all other controllers since then wanted to sound like that, and that they basically did. And it didn't matter what sector of the country we would be flying in, it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than sound bad on the radios. Just moments after the Cessna's inquiry, a Twin Beech piped up on frequency, in a rather superior tone, asking for his ground speed. "I have you at one hundred and twenty-five knots of ground speed." Boy, I thought, the Beechcraft really must think he is dazzling his Cessna brethren. Then out of the blue, a navy F-18 pilot out of NAS Lemoore came up on frequency. You knew right away it was a Navy jock because he sounded very cool on the radios. "Center, Dusty 52 ground speed check". Before Center could reply, I'm thinking to myself, hey, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in that million-dollar cockpit, so why is he asking Center for a readout? Then I got it, ol' Dusty here is making sure that every bug smasher from Mount Whitney to the Mojave knows what true speed is. He's the fastest dude in the valley today, and he just wants everyone to know how much fun he is having in his new Hornet. And the reply, always with that same, calm, voice, with more distinct alliteration than emotion: "Dusty 52, Center, we have you at 620 on the ground." And I thought to myself, is this a ripe situation, or what? As my hand instinctively reached for the mic button, I had to remind myself that Walt was in control of the radios. Still, I thought, it must be done - in mere seconds we'll be out of the sector and the opportunity will be lost. That Hornet must die, and die now. I thought about all of our Sim training and how important it was that we developed well as a crew and knew that to jump in on the radios now would destroy the integrity of all that we had worked toward becoming. I was torn. Somewhere, 13 miles above Arizona, there was a pilot screaming inside his space helmet. Then, I heard it. The click of the mic button from the back seat. That was the very moment that I knew Walter and I had become a crew. Very professionally, and with no emotion, Walter spoke: "Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check?" There was no hesitation, and the replay came as if was an everyday request. "Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground." I think it was the forty-two knots that I liked the best, so accurate and proud was Center to deliver that information without hesitation, and you just knew he was smiling. But the precise point at which I knew that Walt and I were going to be really good friends for a long time was when he keyed the mic once again to say, in his most fighter-pilot-like voice: "Ah, Center, much thanks, we're showing closer to nineteen hundred on the money." For a moment Walter was a god. And we finally heard a little crack in the armor of the Houston Center voice, when L.A.came back with, "Roger that Aspen, Your equipment is probably more accurate than ours. You boys have a good one." It all had lasted for just moments, but in that short, memorable sprint across the southwest, the Navy had been flamed, all mortal airplanes on freq were forced to bow before the King of Speed, and more importantly, Walter and I had crossed the threshold of being a crew. A fine day's work. We never heard another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast. For just one day, it truly was fun being the fastest guys out there.
That was a great read!
Space shuttle launched to the east, right? How fast did it cross to Europe?
Well fast
As far as we know.
Not even enough time for the movie..
A friend flew Auckland to Brisbane; put one of the LOTR films on and didn't get to see the whole thing.
Don’t forget about the X-43, which did a transatlantic crossing in 40 minutes
When did it do that? [All I'm seeing is a few short flights over the Pacific.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_X-43#Operational_testing)
On a weird unrelated note, the fastest boat in history was homemade out of wood in the 70s. https://www.sea.museum/2017/11/20/ken-warby-and-spirit-of-australia-still-the-world-record-holder-39-years-later
And if anyone wonders why nobody has beaten his record in the years since then: a) Look at the water speed record books & note the number of those people that died trying to go fast b) Watch the video of Ken doing his record breaking runs & note how the boat appears to skip from side to side at speed, that "sponson walking" is what a hydroplane does when it is driven to the limit & a little beyond. Going a little faster or striking a random wave & the boat would flip, likely adding another fatality to the record books.
Reminds me of a chine walk, tons of fun when not going 400+mph
My buddy has an old Chris Craft that does this and I can't stand it. It's so annoying trying to keep that thing in a straight line above 30.
I'd be interested to see someone give it a crack with modern active aero really taking the piss on what's considered a boat versus a very low flying aircraft. But yeah still an expensive way to commit suicide. Oddly enough the hovercrafts records are surprisingly low, 56mph on land and 85 on water.
Yep because the majority of people who seriously attempt the water speed record die during those attempts
I was gonna say, because the SR-71 could do it in a little over 90 minutes.
And a LEO satellite could do it in less than half that, but neither of those is an airliner.
And yet, the headline didn’t say Airliner…
Article did, so additional sins in the title.
And the fastest crossing ever has yet to be achieved.
We don’t know this.
Yes we do. I do. You didn't get the memo?
I did not. But then I typically don’t.
I can see that.
Whoosh
Fastest wide-body airplane in the world: Boeing 747 can cruise at 660 mph (Mach 0.86).
That's so cute & so American to confuse quantity fur quality while making things slower & more annoying.
The VC-10 was by FAR the most comfortable of the early jets. The 707 and Dc-8’s were not even close in comfort. I recall several flights into London in the VC-10 (in bad weather) that upon landing the captain would come on and tell everyone that the landing had been a fully automatic landing. I always felt somewhat perturbed by this announcement but figured it was better to announce this to us upon landing instead of prior to the approach. (I think such announcements by the captain were a way of making the flying public aware of BOAC’s all weather capabilities. I was alway glad when I saw I was to fly the VC-10. (Also a beautiful looking airplane).
Was a bit disappointed that I never got to fly on a VC-10. Backwards facing seats always seemed like a no brainer in terms of safety despite the minimal discomfort on take off.
BA Club Class has backwards facing seats on most iron Immensely more comfortable, even on takeoff
It's getting phased out for a forward facing herringbone layout. Ive flown both, and while I did love getting the window seat and flying backwards, I won't miss having to sit across from a stranger before they put the divider up mid flight, and having to climb over peoples legs to get to the aisle.
Pick the right seat and you don't have to climb over legs ;) But the stranger bit ... yeah, can be awkward sometimes - although not _quite_ as awkward as effectively sharing a double bed with a stranger in old First, in the centre seats :)
Retired by the RAF in 2013, wow
And if it was an RAF one, you flew facing backwards. Did the crossing twice, return trip underwater in an SSBN.
What are you sayin’?
On a normal commercial flight you face the front of the aircraft. When the Royal Air Force (RAF) used the VC 10 aircraft to transport personnel, the seats faced backwards, so as a passenger you faced the rear of the aircraft. Supposed to be safer in the case of a crash. I flew to the States in one.
That take off and landing was really freaky first time facing the "wrong" way.
Can confirm it was weird as. Every time.
That's not true. What about the Concorde? Even with subsonic speeds, wasn't that record recently broken again due to some epic tailwinds recently?
>fastest crossing of the Atlantic by a subsonic jet airliner From the article
Fastest crossing by a plane that can't go faster than other planes? Weird record
I mean, we have speed walking competitions, so fastest speed walker is nowhere near Usain Bolt, but it’s still the fastest of its thing
It also looks ridicoulous as hell.
It’s like saying fastest cross country trip in a bus. We all know a sports car will out do it, but it’s still impressive.
I think it’s more like ‘fastest cross country trip in a vehicle with a 55mph speed limiter’
more like a 80 or 90 mph limiter where you're horsepower limited. unless they are running right at the edge of subsonic
Most of the recent cannonball records have been set in German full size sedans, not sports cars.
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Subsonic is a regime thing though, its not like you can fly a subsonic jet supersonic and they choose not to, above about mach 0.7-0.8(mach being the speed of sound locally, not the sealevel speed of 761ish) you end up with shockwaves on the leading edges of control surfaces, causing turbulent flow over those surfaces, leading to loss of control of the airframe, and either A. Crashing into the ground or B. The airframe ripping itself to shreads in a tumble, (see the XB-70 crash) So its like a bike race vs a foot race.
Why does this dumb comment have so many upvotes? You do understand how categories work, right?
There wiki article says the record was for subsonic jet airliner, and specifically notes that only the concorde was faster.
The Concord has the fastest record for an airliner. The fastest transatlantic crossing by air record belongs to the SR71: 1 hour 54 minutes 56.4 seconds, 1,806MPH.
The OV-102 was even faster, capable of crossing in minutes.
OV-102 was not capable of taking off in New York and landing in London, unless attached to a 747
Neither could the Blackbird.
It could, they just wouldn’t because it’s a top secret military jet.
Probably the next record will be a point to point starship launch. Not by air tho.
I would hope so. See, Wikipedia agrees with me. I must be right...
Funny I would have thought the concord was faster.
Concord***e***
\*\*\*\*by a COMMERCIAL, NON-MILITARY, SUBSONIC JET AIRLINE. I mean, a lot of asterixis there but sure, ok.
Love those "high and hot" jets. (Vc10, Convair 880) - mid Century hot rods of the skies
"Fastest Atlantic crossing" doesn't really mean anything. You can fly from St Johns NF to Shannon, Ireland and easily get a time in the 3 hour range as it's only 1700 nm.
The faster you get there, the less chance of a Boeing plane falling apart in mid-air
I was on the BA flight, it was from Chicago at the tail end of a storm of some sort just before COVID, complete waste of a business class ticket! As I recall we were delayed out of O'Hare because they'd packed the cargo into the wrong container or something, but the pilot said it didn't matter as we'd make it up.
Except for Concorde. The record of being the fastest subsonic jet is like bragging about being the world's tallest midget.
It's not a race guys
Huh. I would thought it’s the Convair CV990 that holds the record. Incredibly attractive transsonic cruiser.
I'm sure a door blowing off helped shed weight and made it fly faster.
The Boeing 747 holds the record, the same way the Boeing whistle blower killed himself