Speedbird

Transatlantic flight nears supersonic speeds

By Euan McKirdy, CNN

Updated 2:17 AM ET, Mon January 12, 2015

Story highlights

• A British Airways flight makes New York - London in record time
• Plane hitches a ride on powerful jetstream, reducing flight time by an hour and a half
• Boeing 777-200 hits speeds of 745 mph, just shy of the speed of sound

(CNN)Transatlantic passengers taking the JFK to Heathrow red-eye got a helpful boost from stronger-than-average winds, reaching near-supersonic speeds and cutting 90 minutes off the scheduled flight time.

The British Airways Boeing 777-200 made the New York-London route in five hours, 16 minutes last Wednesday, and reached ground speeds of up to 1200 km/h (745 mph), riding a powerful jet stream of up to 322 km/h (200 mph) tailwinds. The sonic barrier is broken at 1224 km/h (761 mph).

'Like surfing'

Former BA pilot Alastair Rosenschein told the British press that riding the jet stream was "just like surfing."

"It's extraordinary how fast you can go," the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying.

"You try to sit in the core of the jet where it's not too turbulent and where you can pick up some free mileage. It's not unusual to get 100 mph tailwinds but (these pilots) have got more than that. This must be a record."

Several other flights heading east over the Atlantic also benefited from the weather, but it was flight BA114 that made headlines with the record time.

Matching Concorde? Not even close

Only the now-retired Concorde, which was operated by BA and Air France until it was decommissioned in 2003, bested Flight 114's New York-London time -- a BA Concorde made that trip in 1996 in just under two hours, 53 minutes.

For European passengers traveling westwards, however, the jet stream will mean longer-than-average flight times as planes need to battle powerful headwinds.

Gale-force winds affected travel in the UK this week ahead of forecasted heavy snow