Virgin Atlantic 787 hits 800+ mph

[Rimbo 25910]

Eeeeeeeyyyyyyoooooowwnnnnn *airplane noises*

[XYZ 2154]

You asshole.

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

And I took the time to turn my volume down before I hit the link.

[DoobieWah 1435]

Is a 200 mph jet stream common?

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

It’s not uncommon over Japan. 150-160 kts is more typical of a strong jetstream over the US. 

Edited February 23, 2019 by Bobby_Batronic

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

Airborne treadmill!

[Armybrat 40822]

Sum Ting Wong, I don’t hear anything at the link.

[RPM 26315]

What happens when they drop out of that tailwind? Is it a gentle reduction of wind or do you get slammed with a 200mph speed brake?

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

Generally it’s pretty bumpy. 

[hornimal 80]

40 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

Generally it’s pretty bumpy. 

on an eastbound flight I hit 700+mph ground speed on a b737 catching a jetstream.  had it not been for the pilot making the announcement nobody would have had any idea.

[hornimal 80]

3 hours ago, RPM said:

What happens when they drop out of that tailwind? Is it a gentle reduction of wind or do you get slammed with a 200mph speed brake?

is there anything being done to change the ship's aerodynamic profile?

[RPM 26315]

1 minute ago, hornimal said:

is there anything being done to change the ship's aerodynamic profile?

Not sure. Is it on a treadmill?

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

7 minutes ago, hornimal said:

on an eastbound flight I hit 700+mph ground speed on a b737 catching a jetstream.  had it not been for the pilot making the announcement nobody would have had any idea.

Entering or exiting the core of a strong jet stream is usually pretty turbulent. 

700mph ground speed is really nothing special. In fact it’s pretty typical of West to East wintertime winds over the US. Given a TAS of 450 kts, or roughly .78M, and a 150 kt tailwind you’d be doing 700mph over the ground all day. 

However, exit a large area of fairly steady state winds and you’ll find rough air with the change in wind velocity and direction. Like leaving the jet stream. 

Edited February 24, 2019 by Bobby_Batronic

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

3 hours ago, RPM said:

What happens when they drop out of that tailwind? Is it a gentle reduction of wind or do you get slammed with a 200mph speed brake?

Generally when the speed drops of 30-50 knots over a short distance you get a rough ride, but the relative wind remains the same. Your ground speed just drops commiserate with the loss of tailwind. 

 

[The People’s Elbow 707]

10 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

Entering or exiting the core of a strong jet stream is usually pretty turbulent. 

700mph ground speed is really nothing special. In fact it’s pretty typical of West to East wintertime winds over the US. Given a TAS of 450 kts, or roughly .78M, and a 150 kt tailwind you’d be doing 700mph over the ground all day. 

However, exit a large area of fairly steady state winds and you’ll find rough air with the change in wind velocity and direction. Like leaving the jet stream. 

Yeah right. Like anyone could actually know that. 

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

 http://www.fltplan.com/AwDisplayWindsAloft.exe?a=1

Here are the current winds aloft at 36,000 over the US. Notice the large red section. Those winds are running 130-140knos. Each triangle equals 50 knots of winds. Each long hash is 10, and each short hash is 5. 

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

Just now, The People’s Elbow said:

Yeah right. Like anyone could actually know that. 

Holiday Inn Express makes me more smarter. 

[DaysOff 7947]

.

[hornimal 80]

9 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

Entering or exiting the core of a strong jet stream is usually pretty turbulent. 

700mph ground speed is really nothing special. In fact it’s pretty typical of West to East wintertime winds over the US. Given a TAS of 450 kts, or roughly .78M, and a 150 kt tailwind you’d be doing 700mph over the ground all day. 

However, exit a large area of fairly steady state winds and you’ll find rough air with the change in wind velocity and direction. Like leaving the jet stream. 

I realized that while typing my reply I had deleted the note I made on my phone at the time with the exact speed, I was being conservative.  it must have been an impressive number, the crew mentioned they had never experienced that in all their years of experience.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

That doesn’t surprise me. Several friends sent me pics of their groundspeed recently, so it must have been a really strong jet stream. 

[The People’s Elbow 707]

3 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

That doesn’t surprise me. Several friends sent me pics of their groundspeed recently, so it must have been a really strong jet stream. 

In all seriousness, I read it was near or at record-breaking for North America. 

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

6 minutes ago, The People’s Elbow said:

In all seriousness, I read it was near or at record-breaking for North America. 

My friend just posted a pic of his groundspeed on a flight from LA to Dulles in a 737. 623 knots of groundspeed while getting a TAS of  450 knots. 

[Parliament 14237]

4 hours ago, RPM said:

What happens when they drop out of that tailwind? Is it a gentle reduction of wind or do you get slammed with a 200mph speed brake?

[hookem48 4687]

4 hours ago, RPM said:

What happens when they drop out of that tailwind? Is it a gentle reduction of wind or do you get slammed with a 200mph speed brake?

 

[Exposition 93]

Anyone have any good stories about the SR-71 and speed? 

[Crusher 127]

2 hours ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

My friend just posted a pic of his groundspeed on a flight from LA to Dulles in a 737. 623 knots of groundspeed while getting a TAS of  450 knots. 

So your saying its all relative. The plane didn't actually break the sound barrier? 

 

[Assman 1830]

There's no better morale boost like a 150 kt ground speed over the north Atlantic.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

10 hours ago, Exposition said:

Anyone have any good stories about the SR-71 and speed? 

Speed kills..............that's all I got.

[markstanco 12570]

Anyone have any good stories about the SR-71 and speed? 

It's not very efficient and it leaks fuel

[Texas_Rocks 346]

Anyone have any good stories about the SR-71 and speed? 

Something about an old SR-71 pilot and speed checks with flight controllers.

[Buffsoldier 1895]

'Bout to board a Denver to Munich Lufthansa flight.  Will try to capture a groundspeed if I can.

[Guest Lobo]

It's an entirely different kind of flying...altogether! 

[Buffsoldier 1895]

"It's an entirely different kind of flying..."

[Homercles 10205]

It's not very efficient and it leaks fuel

It was pretty efficient given how fast it could roll, and it got better the higher Mach it was able to pull. Granted they did have to tanker right after takeoff (namely to give enough balanced field length and preserve the tires) and several times during the flight. What amazed me about it was how much propulsive work was pulled out of the careful management of the shock trap, bypass tubes, doors, nozzle, etc that effectively made it a ramjet at high speed.

Now Concordski couldn’t figure it out and I don’t think it had the legs to even do x-Atlantic, which I always found comical. Probably as they didn’t have the ability to get the inlet and nozzles figured out well like Concorde/SR-71...I think it could only stay supersonic wet.

/nerd post

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

The unusual case of the plane being limited by aerodynamics/thermodynamics and not its motor. Concorde had the same issue to a degree.   

I always wondered how fast they actually managed to go in one. 

Concorde was also one of the saner flight deck layouts the Brits produced. They had some very interesting ideas about ergonomics  in everything from their fighters to their bombers and airliners. Maybe the frogs reeled them in a bit. 

[Parliament 14237]

1 hour ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

They had some very interesting ideas about ergonomics  in everything from their fighters to their bombers and airliners.

Like what?

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

31 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Like what?

Oh, the general scattershotting of everything which wasn’t that uncommon back in the day. The VC10 looked like it had two extra sets of thrust levers next to the actual thrust levers. They were trim controls. The VC10 and Concorde had very large piano key styled autopilot controls. The entire center pedestal of the Vulcan was hinged at the top and lifted so that the crew could take their seats before putting the panel back in place. There’s tons more. I’ve been watching flightdeck tours of the Concorde, VC10, Vulcan, Buccaneer, Jaguar and others lately. Just very interesting ideas with regard to instrumentality and control placement.