New York To London... In Under 5 Hours!

British Airways is enjoying SERIOUS bragging rights this week as a weekend jaunt over the Atlantic took advantage of massive tailwinds to make the trip in 4 hours and 56 minutes... well over an hour less than the norm, but not quite as fast as the times we saw back in the Concorde days.

The BA B747-400, registered at G-CIVP blasted off on Sunday, February 9th on a schedule run from JFK to London's Heathrow. The upper winds were extensive, the speeds maintained fairly well throughout the trip and Flightradar-24.com showed that BA Flt 112 maxed out as high as 825 mph shortly after crossing Canada's Atlantic coast. Media reports indicate that this may be a record flight... exceeding a previous record set by a Norwegian Boeing 787 in 2018 -- reporting that the Boeing 787 twinjet completed the run in just a tad over five hours, with the help of tail winds that flirted with 200 mph.

Of course; these are conventional, modern air transport airframes... yet, back in the Concorde days, the Supersonic flight route often saw speeds of nearly 1400 mph when the 'Speedbird' still was in service. In those days; the Concorde could make the flight in under three hours...

Still, 800 mph ground speeds in a classic 747-400 is nothing to sneeze at...

FMI: www.britishairways.com