In Australia flights west to Perth from Sydney or Melbourne will be at least half-an-hour slower than the other way around. In the case of the record-breaking New York to London flight, planes travelling the opposite way took almost three hours longer. They flow from west to east, in line with the Earth's rotation, which is why it's faster to travel in that direction too. They drive the world's weather, acting as conductors on high in the global circulation system. As winds sweep through the upper atmosphere, jet streams are the fast-moving currents carving through their heart. So how do winds affect flight time? What is the jet stream? And could supersonic planes – like the old Concorde that once made the trip in less than three hours – ever stage a comeback? But they are also riding a weird quirk of physics – a fast-moving global conveyor belt long known to migrating birds and airlines alike. That's the fastest time for a passenger plane crossing the pond since the same airline retired its famed supersonic Concorde in 2003.Īs Ciara – now dubbed "the storm of the century" – charges into Britain, airlines are taking advantage of unusually strong wind currents over the Atlantic to make history. It took the British Airways plane less than five hours to make the 5541-kilometre stretch on February 9, clocking a top speed of 1327 kilometres per hour to arrive more than 80 minutes ahead of schedule. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text sizeĪ monster storm bearing down on the United Kingdom has swept a flight from New York to London in record-breaking time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |