Passengers aboard three flights this weekend were in for a wild ride as freak winds pushed their flights faster than the speed of sound.
Virgin Atlantic Airways Flight 22, British Airways Flight 292 and British Airways Flight 216 reached speeds of more than 800 miles per hour by traveling along the jet stream.
For comparison, the typical cruising speed of a passenger plane is about 920 km/h.
The jet stream moves from west to east and can shorten flight times and get passengers to their destinations ahead of schedule.
However, the trade-off of traveling along the jet stream is more severe turbulence, scientists have also warned.
According to the US National Weather Service, winds reached 425 km/h at about 35,000 km above Washington – the altitude at which airplanes fly
According to the U.S. National Weather Service, winds reached 265 mph at about 35,000 feet above Washington — the altitude at which airplanes fly
On Saturday, a Virgin Atlantic flight from Washington to London reached a speed of almost 800 miles per hour by surfing the jet stream.
According to the WashingtonPostthe Virgin Atlantic flight departed Washington at 10:45 pm on Saturday and reached speed just east of Long Island at 11:20 pm.
The U.S. National Weather Service said winds reached speeds of 265 mph at about 35,000 feet above Washington — the altitude at which planes fly.
“Tonight’s weather balloon launch detected the second-strongest upper-level winds on record in local history dating back to the mid-20th century,” the National Weather Service for Baltimore and Washington said. posted on X.
‘Around 34,000 – 35,000 feet the wind peaked at about 230 knots (265 mph!).
“For those flying east on this plane, there will be quite a tailwind.”
After leaving the jet stream further north, its speed leveled off to between 1000 and 1100 km/h.
This is still faster than the normal cruising speed (approximately 920 km/h), allowing the aircraft to reach its destination approximately 45 minutes ahead of schedule.
Jet currents are created by the contrast between cold, dense air at the poles and warm, light air in the tropics, combined with the Earth’s rotation. Pictured, jet stream winds (fastest in dark red)
Meanwhile, a United Airlines flight from Newark took off at 8:35 p.m. Saturday and reached a speed of 835 mph just off the east coast before reaching its destination in Lisbon 20 minutes early.
Finally, American Airlines Flight 120 from Philadelphia to Doha reached a speed of 840 mph around 10:15 p.m., about 30 minutes after takeoff.
The plane made up for lost time after its departure was more than 30 minutes late Trip.com.
Although all three planes reached speeds of more than 800 mph, well above the speed of sound, WFLA Tampa Bay meteorologist Jeff Berardelli said they technically did not break the sound barrier.
He posted on X: ‘The aircraft is embedded in a speed of 200 miles per hour + wind, so it travels with the wind and so the plane itself travels no greater than 767 miles per hour relative to the environment it is in.’
It is known that the only aircraft to break the sound barrier is the retired Concorde, which can reach a whopping 2,100 km/h.
The commercial aircraft was retired in 2003, in the years following a catastrophic crash in France in July 2000, but NASA is working on a successor that can reach a speed of 1,500 km/h.
Jeff Berardelli, meteorologist for WFLA Tampa Bay, said an airplane doesn’t technically break the sound barrier if it isn’t flying faster than 750 mph relative to the environment it’s in.
The Concorde was the world’s first supersonic airliner and operated for 27 years, but was grounded in October 2003. The photo shows the British Airways Concorde G-BOAB taking off with its landing gear still extended over the town of Fairford, Gloucestershire in the Cotswolds, on July 20, 1996, during the annual RAF Fairford air show
Supersonic planes could fly from London to New York in four hours, but until then, pilots can cut travel time thanks to jet streams.
The jet stream is created by the contrast between the cold, dense air at the poles and the warm, light air in the tropics, in combination with the Earth’s rotation.
Scientists already know that a potential positive effect of the jet stream is faster flights, depending on the direction a plane is flying.
Airplanes can ‘surf the wind’ to get a speed boost and reduce flight times, while also using less fuel and in turn reducing CO2 emissions.
A University of Reading study found that commercial transatlantic flights could use up to 16 percent less fuel if they made better use of fast-moving winds.
Diverting transatlantic flights to better take advantage of favorable high-altitude winds could save fuel, time and emissions
A study by the University of Reading has shown that aircraft can reduce their CO2 emissions by piggybacking on the jet stream more often
While faster transatlantic flights may not seem so bad, the downside is that planes are likely to experience more turbulence due to a faster jet stream.
Last year, experts reported in a study that global warming is accelerating winds in the jet streams due to changes in the density of air in Earth’s atmosphere.
These higher wind speeds cause heavier updrafts and downdrafts, resulting in severe turbulence for aircraft.
“Turbulence occurs when there is a large change in wind speed with height,” Osamu Miyawaki, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and one of the study’s authors, told MailOnline.
‘When layers of air move at different speeds, the air starts to mix at the interface of the layers. This mixed air grows into a rotating vortex, or a whirlwind, which we feel as turbulence when airplanes fly through it.
‘A faster jet stream means greater changes in wind speed with height, making these vortices more energetic and intense.’