Left Wing Nut Fires a Bullet at the Whitehouse.

Quote from pspr:

At around 20,000 feet the speed of sound is 660 MPH. Most airliners have a cruising speed between 450 and 500 MPH. It's not likely you were flying at 650 MPH at 39,000 feet.
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Well, maybe the gps thingy on the plane was wrong, but it definitely said 650 mph, and we were at 38000 plus feet, the temp of the air was -70 F. It was fascinating.
 
Quote from RCG Trader:

Well, maybe the gps thingy on the plane was wrong, but it definitely said 650 mph, and we were at 38000 plus feet, the temp of the air was -70 F. It was fascinating.
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You definitely don't want to do any wing-walking! :D
 
Quote from pspr:

At around 30,000 feet the speed of sound is 680 MPH. Most airliners have a cruising speed between 450 and 500 MPH. The 767 has a cruising speed around 530 MPH. It's not likely you were flying at 650 MPH at 39,000 feet.
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I remember because I too was thinking about how close we were to the speed of sound. We were also, very, very late:D
 
Quote from RCG Trader:

...but it definitely said 650 mph...
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Probably ground speed, IOW the speed being traveled across the ground versus the speed of the aircraft traveling through the air.
 
Quote from Lucrum:

Probably ground speed, IOW the speed being traveled across the ground versus the speed of the aircraft traveling through the air.
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Never even knew the 2 were different before, what makes the difference, wind resistance? Is there a substantial difference between the 2? (May be a stupid question on my part but i was just curious)
 
Quote from Max E. Pad:

Never even knew the 2 were different before, what makes the difference, wind resistance? Is there a substantial difference between the 2? (May be a stupid question on my part but i was just curious)
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Simplest explanation would be some examples.

No wind, a plane flying through the air at 450 kts (518 mph) is also crossing the ground at 450 kts.

A plane flying through the air at 450 kts with a 100 kt tailwind would be crossing the ground (ground speed) at 550 kts.

A plane flying through the air into a 50 kt headwind will have a ground speed of 400 kts.

The planes flight characteristics are based solely on it's speed through the air, it's air speed. The plane only "knows" or "sees" airspeed, the indicated airspeed at that. As opposed to it's true airspeed. The ground speed is used for and important in navigation as you might well imagine.
 
But in RCG's example, wouldn't his plane need to be going West to East in the jet stream to get a ~100 mph tail wind?
Quote from Lucrum:

Simplest explanation would be some examples.

No wind, a plane flying through the air at 450 kts (518 mph) is also crossing the ground at 450 kts.

A plane flying through the air at 450 kts with a 100 kt tailwind would be crossing the ground (ground speed) at 550 kts.

A plane flying through the air into a 50 kt headwind will have a ground speed of 400 kts.

The planes flight characteristics are based solely on it's speed through the air, it's air speed. The plane only "knows" or "sees" airspeed, the indicated airspeed at that. As opposed to it's true airspeed. The ground speed is used for and important in navigation as you might well imagine.
More...
 
Quote from pspr:

But in RCG's example, wouldn't his plane need to be going West to East in the jet stream to get a ~100 mph tail wind?
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Generally speaking yes, but sometimes the jet stream makes bends. At times and in places it might be more northerly or even southwesterly.


I didn't notice which direction he said he was traveling.
 
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