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British Airways 747 just set subsonic speed record for Atlantic crossing:
Here's a good piece of trivia for you: what's the fastest commercial airliner in operation? As of Sunday, the answer might be "the Boeing 747"—not bad for an airliner that first entered service 50 years ago. On Saturday evening at 6:47pm ET, British Airways 747-400, tail number G-CIVP, took off from John F Kennedy (JFK) airport in New York. It landed at London's Heathrow Airport (LHR) at 4:43am local time—a crossing time of just 4 hours and 56 minutes, and a new record for subsonic aircraft.
Of course, the venerable jumbo had some help. Neither Boeing nor BA have rolled out a surprise engine upgrade, but Storm Ciara[*]—a weather disturbance currently rearranging British landscapes—gave the plane a helping hand with 200mph+ (320km/h+) tailwinds. G-CIVP set a peak ground speed of 825mph (1,327km/h), although its peak airspeed remained subsonic at around Mach 0.85.
That's a huge improvement over the prior record for a commercial, non-supersonic aircraft of 5 hours and 3 minutes!
The all-time record for any aircraft was managed in comfortably under 2 hours!
I was actually quite surprised to learn they were still in use as passenger aircraft. I'd taken a vacation 40 some-odd years ago to a Caribbean Island. I don't recall what the exact model plane it was that brought me there. But I do recall that all two dozen or so of us who were returning on a red-eye at the end of the week found ourselves as the sole passengers on a 747! Never mind trying to catch a nap with your seat in the reclined position... We just tipped up all the armrests in a center row of five seats and had plenty of space to sprawl out and sleep! If you ever get a chance to fly one before they are all retired, highly recommended to add to one's "bucket list."
*Ciara; pronuounced /ˈkɪərə/ KEER-ə
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:21PM (1 child)
No, I've not been on any flights that flew through bad storms. No hair raising almost-hit-the mountain, nor even almost-hit-another-plane. My most memorable flight was a miserable one, on a 747, from Anchorage to Chicago. Something in the air gave me the worst headache that I think I have ever experienced.
Probably not toxic, because I didn't see other people complaining, or holding their heads. Something, though. The headache started soon after boarding, and got worse when we sealed up and took off. And, just kept getting worse, until they unsealed in Chicago. Seriously, five minutes after they opened the door, the headache was gone.
Maybe it was just some woman's perfume, or some guy's cheap aftershave. Maybe it was sinus pressure, made worse by the flight. I never figured it out, but that was the single worst flight of my life.
I never flew on a 747 again, so I have no other flights to compare to that one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @09:59PM
Might have been some crap from the engines leaking into the cabin. You frequently smell that, though.
Once you are at altitude (not your case) the cabin pressure is lowered and they recycle the stale, high CO2, low O2 air. It is very dry too. That can give you a headache.