Yesterday we reported on the severe weather affecting Northwest Europe and the UK in particular.
But every cloud has its silver lining; flights east-bound were able to take advantage of the immensely strong jet-stream associated with storm Ciara and posted record times for routes crossing the Atlantic.
On Saturday evening, British Airways 747-400 operating flight 112 a achieved a new record of four hours and 56 minutes, breaking the previous time of five hours and 13 minutes held by Norwegian 787-9 from JFK to Gatwick. That evening Virgin were a very close second with VS4 at four hours and 57 minutes.
Well, Virgin have won back the bragging rights by some margin, with their JFK-LHR/VS 4 making the journey in a lightning four hours and 47 minutes; that’s nine minutes faster. Virgin’s Head of Flight Crew, Robbert A Strating (sic.) reported the A350-1000 as having made a groundspeed of 724 knots, pushed along by a tailwind of 218 knots. (1340 kph/404 kph)
To add insult to injury, Strating made the point that the Airbus burned 22 tons less fuel than the BA flight!
Richard Branson would have to go like the wind to break the all-time record of one hour 56 minutes by the Lockheed Blackbird.
Unless he includes a trip with Virgin Galactic at some time in the future.
And that would just be cheating.
