Airplanes from the USA to Europe fly today at the “speed of sound”. This is the result of unusual movement over the Earth

A very strong jet stream was observed over the North Atlantic, which is eagerly used by planes flying from the USA to Europe. The air in the narrow tunnel moves so fast that many aircraft reach speeds comparable to the typical speed of sound.

Very fast flights from the USA to Europe. Airplanes are breaking speed records

planes traveling across the Atlantic since October 31 have reached speeds of up to 778 miles per hour (1,252 km/h), which is 320 km/h higher than typical cruising speeds (e.g. 900 km/h for a Boeing 747) on the route between Europe and America Northern. This means that a large number of planes arrive on the Old Continent much ahead of schedule, and even come close to the record-breaking short flights recorded so far on their routes.

The Emirates flight from Dallas to Dubai completed its route in 57 minutes less than usual on Wednesday, reaching a speed of 675 knots (1,250 km/h) off the coast of Newfoundland. It was similar in the case of, among others, American Airlines flight from New York to London, which arrived in six hours and seven minutes (54 minutes ahead of time) – says the station.

We can observe unusual aircraft speeds over the Atlantic by tracking flights on Flightradar24. It is easy to notice that most planes traveling from the USA to Europe follow routes that are much further south (they use the jet stream blowing there) than planes heading in the opposite direction (which fly over the North Atlantic, which is possibly the shortest route). In an entry on the X website, Flightradar24 also showed two identical planes flying in opposite directions. The difference in the speeds at which they moved was more than double.

New Concordes? They fly faster than the speed of sound. Well, not really

Of course, it’s not unusual for flights to Europe to usually take slightly less time than those to North America, but currently the differences are greater than usual. Such high speeds of planes heading east are due to a stronger than usual jet stream, which has been moving at speeds of about 320 km/h since Tuesday.

on the border of warm (in the south) and cold (in the north) air masses at an altitude of approximately 9-12 km. It is relatively thin and narrow (about 2 km), but very often used in air transport. As CNN writes, according to meteorologists, the formation of the current, very strong jet stream is related to the sudden cooling in the northeastern part of the USA and the occurrence of storm Ciaran, which reached France and Great Britain on the night from Wednesday to Thursday.

Interestingly, using the jet stream, planes can fly to Europe at speeds exceeding the speed of sound. At a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius and normal atmospheric pressure, it reaches a speed of 1,225 km/h. Meanwhile, many aircraft are observed easily exceeding speeds of up to 675 knots (1,250 km/h). However, we are talking about speed relative to the Earth. Locally, at no point during the journey do the machines exceed the speed of sound relative to the surrounding air (which itself moves even above 300 km/h relative to the Earth).

The speed record on the extremely popular route from New York to London was set in February 2020 by a British Airways Boeing 747. The machine covered this route in just 4 hours and 56 minutes, while the typical travel time between these cities is less than 7 hours. Using the jet stream, a maximum speed of almost 1,330 km/h was achieved. However, this is still far from the performance of the famous Concorde, which, flying at a cruising speed of approximately 2,150 km/h, transported passengers from New York to England in an average of 3.5 hours.