How fast are passenger planes flying? Everyone who flies on an airplane knows that during the flight, passengers are always informed about the speed of the aircraft. Different types of aircraft under different conditions have different speeds. Let's take a closer look at this interesting question.
Speed Classification
Nowadays, the speed of aircraft has become customary to measure with the speed of sound. The speed of sound in air is 1 224 km / h. Based on the correspondence of the aircraft speed characteristics to the speed of sound, all aircraft are classified as follows:
- subsonic - fly at speeds not reaching the speed mark of sound;
- supersonic - fly at speeds exceeding the speed of sound (speaking of speeds commensurate with the speed of sound, use the concept of “transonic” or “transonic”);
- hypersonic - exceed the speed of sound 4 times or more.
All passenger vessels are subsonic, as they fly at speeds usually not exceeding the speed of sound.
And yet in the history of civil aviation has been the experience of using supersonic passenger aircraft.
The legendary past of supersonic civil aviation: Tu-144 and Concord
Opening the question of how fast passenger planes fly today, one cannot but mention the supersonic passenger planes of the past - the Tu-144 and Concord. These two legends of world aviation saw the light almost simultaneously.
The best minds of the Soviet Union worked on the creation of an ultra-fast Tu-144. He made his first test flight at the end of 1968.
Concord was the brainchild of the Franco-British Union of Aircraft Designers. He first flew up to the sky in early 1969.
Both aircraft looked very similar to each other. The speed of the Tu-144 was 2,300 km / h, the speed of the Concorde 2,250 km / h.
A significant drawback of both aviation monsters was the unbearable noise during the flight coming from engines and air conditioning.
The first crash with the Tu-144 occurred in 1973 at the Le Bourget international air show in France. The plane crashed to the ground during a test flight. The exact cause of this disaster remained unknown. In 1978, there was a second crash - in the Moscow region, during an inspection and acceptance flight, the aircraft's board caught fire. The pilots managed to land the car and evacuate, but it was not possible to stop the fire - the plane burned down. After this incident, passenger flights on the Tu-144 were stopped forever.
The aircraft Concorde continued to successfully carry out passenger flights until July 25, 2000. On that terrible day, the Concorde passenger airliner, flying from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, crashed 3 minutes after takeoff. Killed 113 people. This tragedy gave rise to a ban on the use of Concord aircraft. Subsequently, this ban was lifted, since according to the results of a detailed examination of the technical condition of all Concord aircraft, no defects were revealed. However, in 2003, the largest airlines in the UK and France announced the abandonment of the operation of ships of this brand.
Since then, world civil aviation has preferred simpler, quieter and more efficient subsonic vessels, and the use of supersonic vehicles for passenger transportation is a thing of the past.
Aircraft Cruising Speed Concept
Airplane speed is a complex and not always unambiguous concept, depending on many factors.
First of all, you need to understand the difference between cruising and maximum speeds. Both of these indicators are indicated in the technical description of the aircraft, but the maximum speed of a passenger aircraft is a theoretical concept, since liners on working flights do not develop maximum speed, but adhere to cruising, which is approximately 60–80% of the maximum estimated speed of a particular model of the liner.
There are also concepts of the speed of acceleration, takeoff and landing of the aircraft. But if we are talking about a generalized concept, then, as a rule, we mean cruising speed.
Civil and Military Aviation Performance
By their purpose, airplanes are civilian and military. Civil aircraft, in turn, can be not only passenger, but also be intended for specific needs: sports, fire, cargo, agricultural, etc.
It is not surprising that the high-speed performance of civil and military aircraft differs from each other at times. Such a big difference is due to radically different goals for the use of aircraft. The main goal of passenger liners is safety, efficiency and comfort for passengers, while speed is important for military aircraft.
The average flight speed of a passenger aircraft today is about 900 km / h, which is about 3-4 times lower than the average speed of military aircraft. By the way, the fastest military aircraft of our time is NASA's unmanned X-43A, which set a speed record of 11,231 km / h.
And yet, at what speed do passenger planes fly? Below are the speeds of the most common and commonly used aircraft models in civil aviation.
Cruising and maximum speeds of some passenger aircraft
It is worth mentioning that weather conditions have a significant impact on the speed of a passenger plane in the air. The value of air density and the strength and direction of the wind can significantly affect the actual speed.
Expanding the theme of the speed of passenger aircraft, it is worth mentioning the so-called stall speed.
The concept of stall speed
Too low flight speeds are dangerous for air transport, therefore, for each model of the aircraft, the minimum permissible flight speed necessary to hold the aircraft in the air V min extra, or stall speed, was calculated. If the value of the flight speed drops below V min extra, then there is a danger of aircraft stall. The value of V min add depends on many constant and variable values and is especially critical in the take-off phase. As an example, for the Boeing-747, the estimated stall speed is 220 km / h. The actual stall speed may differ from the calculated one depending on the direction and strength of the wind.
Summarizing the above information about the speed with which passenger planes fly, the following answer can be given: generally accepted average limits of 600–900 km / h.