Was this a fast flight?

[DC3 Fan]

I flew from HKG to SFO on 29 March in a UA B744. I had seat 19K, window bulkhead in the first row of Economy Plus. Used my Garmin GPS to log the flight. The track was far south of the great circle route and 390 nm longer. The maximum speed was 692 kts, (796 miles/hr, 1281 km/hr). The speed was over 775 miles/hr for some hours. We arrived SFO 1 hr 15 min early.

I have flown well over a million miles, but I don’t believe I’ve ever gone faster than on this flight. Perhaps I am mistaken and such speeds are common.

Any comments would be appreciated.

[Stij]

Say "Thank-you very much you mighty jet steam for propelling us at ludicrious speed to SFO".

Cheers,

Stij

[earthman]

[Stij]

Mel Brooks "Space balls" featuring "Dark Helmet"!!! Should rent that movie again!

Cheers,

Stij

[jan_olieslagers]

Thank-you very much you mighty jet steam

Mistake. Days are long gone when steam power was considered for flying. Though, of course, who can know what tomorrow brings...?

[andorra-airport]

Thank-you very much you mighty jet steam

Mistake. Days are long gone when steam power was considered for flying. Though, of course, who can know what tomorrow brings...?

I know you are joking, but too bad steam engines never made it (on airplanes). The problem was power to weight ratio , but they were silent and capable of STOL because they could reverse the thrust. Here is a nice video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw6NFmcnW-8

(and sorry that this is off-topic)

[regi]

Thank-you very much you mighty jet steam

Mistake. Days are long gone when steam power was considered for flying. Though, of course, who can know what tomorrow brings...?

I know you are joking, but too bad steam engines never made it (on airplanes). The problem was power to weight ratio , but they were silent and capable of STOL because they could reverse the thrust. Here is a nice video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw6NFmcnW-8

(and sorry that this is off-topic)

Well...it depends on what you consider as a steam engine.
But if water is used to cool a nuclear reactor and the resulting steam drives an impeller, we could speak about steam power.
It has flown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_X-6

[DC3 Fan]

Using a web search I found a map depicting the jet stream during my HKG-SFO flight. Wind speed is in knots. Appears it was really steaming along!