A British Airways flight has broken the record for the fastest subsonic flight from New York to London, completing the journey in just four hours and 56 minutes.
The Boeing 747 took off from New York on Saturday night and landed at London’s Heathrow Airport at 4:43 a.m. on Sunday, almost two hours ahead of schedule. It reached a top speed of 825 miles per hour.
“We always prioritize safety over speed records, but our highly trained pilots made the most of the conditions to get customers back to London well ahead of time,” a British Airways spokesperson said in a statement.
Fastest across the Atlantic tonight from New York to London so far is #BA112 at 4hr56m. #VS4 in 4:57, and #VS46 in 4:59. https://t.co/gfYoHGV3Y6https://t.co/kMhjCqdEtt
If we're not mistaken, BA now retakes the fastest subsonic NY-London crossing from Norwegian. pic.twitter.com/Sr1GPeAjuh
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 9, 2020
The previous record, set by Norwegian Air in January 2018, was five hours and 13 minutes. The average time it takes for a plane to fly from New York to London is six hours and 13 minutes.
As CNN notes, “Although the BA plane was clocked apparently going faster than the speed of sound — 767 mph — it would not have breached the sonic barrier because it was being pushed by the air around it. Even when traveling at more than 800mph, the 747 was traveling much slower than the speed of sound relative to the air around it.”
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