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While no commercial aircraft has come close to touching the record transatlantic flight time of the now-defunct Concorde, which clocked in at just under two hours and 53 minutes back in 1996, one subsonic airliner has now come closer than ever before.
As The Telegraph reports, this Monday, a Norwegian 787 Dreamliner flew from New York (JFK) to London Gatwick (LGW) in just five hours and 13 minutes, besting a 2015 British Airways record on the same route by three minutes. While the eastbound leg is always shorter than the return flight to the US, Monday’s Norwegian flight 7014 beat the average crossing time by some 30 minutes, pulling into the gate in London 44 minutes ahead of schedule.
While passengers on much more common transatlantic redeye flights wouldn’t mind a few extra hours of shut-eye, this happened to be a daytime departure, so the early arrival was likely well-received.
According to the Telegraph report, the plane reached a top ground speed of 776 miles per hour, aided by 202-mile-per-hour winds. The pilot reportedly slowed the aircraft while combating turbulence — with smoother air, the flight could have been even shorter.
Source: thepointsguy.com