High speed BA

Passengers on board BA flight 114 from New York – John F. Kennedy International Airport to Heathrow last week were probably left waiting to be collected after their flight arrived about an hour and a half ahead of schedule.

The Boeing 777-200 nearly broke the sound barrier reaching a ground speed of 745mph as it got caught up in tailwinds winds of more than 200mph.  To break the sound barrier, a plane must travel at a speed of 761mph.

Alastair Rosenschein, a former British Airways pilot, talking to the Daily Telegraph compared an aircraft getting caught in a jet stream to surfing.

“It’s just like surfing. It’s extraordinary how fast you can go.”

“You try to sit in the core of the jet where it’s not too turbulent and where you can pick up some free mileage.  It’s not unusual to get 100mph tailwinds but they have got more than that,” he said. “This must be a record.”

Readers may recall that Concorde was scheduled to take 3hrs 30mins and regularly neared 3hrs for the crossing.  The record was set on 7 February 1996 when it completed the New York to London flight in 2hrs 52mins.  www.ba.com

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