A new record was set as a British Airways flight only took a mere four hours and 56 minutes to reach London’s Heathrow from the JFK international airport in New York. British Airways Flight 112 broke the previous record of 5 hours 13 minutes between New York and London.
All this was because of a jet stream which was at over 260 mph and it supercharged the transatlantic flight. The plane departed from New York at 6:20 pm and it landed at 4:43 am in London, which was two hours before its scheduled time.
Jet stream is a strong wind zone, which is around 30,000 feet in the atmosphere, where storms track. There are several aircrafts which do fly along the jet stream to be able to speed up. In the winter season, the North Atlantic jet stream remains the most powerful. Thus, flights moving eastward across the Atlantic speed up while the ones going to the west, slow down which cause an hour’s delay and at times even a refuel stop.
There were many other flights which flew from the same route and covered the distance in less than 5 hours. There are many supersonic commercial aircraft, that have crossed the Atlantic in a lot less time, with the record being 2 hours 53 minutes.
While the jet stream helps wintertime transatlantic flights in crossing speedily, but they do cause clear air turbulence. The flight through the stream is smooth but the entry and exit causes turbulence because of rough winds, and lots of wind shear.
Image Credit: YouTube
