How Fast Is a Supersonic Plane?

20 years ago, you could fly in a plane going faster than sound. But, uh... how fast is that?

The famous Concorde supersonic plane could get from New York to London in 3 and a half hours. But then… these planes stopped flying, and we never made any more like them. Now, New York to London takes 7 hours.

But why? What happened to supersonic planes? And more importantly… can we bring them BACK? If you ask NASA, the answer is yes. In our longer episode on supersonic flight, we got to go see the brand new experimental X-59 plane they’re building. Here’s what’s really huge if true: If NASA succeeds, it could bring back commercial supersonic flight, and allow you and I to fly faster than sound.

This video is part of Huge If True. If you like optimistic stories about technology and the future, follow for more! #tech #supersonic #airplane #plane #concorde #NASA

[nataliesteiner]

My grandfather once told me he flew in a Concorde. He passed away at 90 recently and it was nice to be reminded of him :)

[ZarakiKenpachi]

TGV record is 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph), and Bullet Train (japanese train) record is 603km/h

[AlbertSpice]

My dad has been in the Concorde twice and said that it was still to this day the quietest and smoothest flight he had.

[justabyte]

For those that didn't know;
The reason concord was decommisioned was due to it being a commercial air craft and that going supersonic creates a butt tonne more drag once you break the sound barrier and this uses a LOT more fuel. Creating sonic booms (which happen once going passed the speed of sound) makes the flight a whole lot more costly, and thus wasn't a viable commercial product for consumers to regularly use.

[gummypanda]

And then there is me after turning the lights off at night

[purekeuste]

It’s crazy that there are cars that’s faster than the fastest train.

[WallySketch]

The correct scientific notation for "Kilometer per hour" is km/h not KPH. No one use KPH as it is non-standard.

[willdawes]

Also, it's given a Mach number bevause the speed of sound changes with air density as you increase in altitude! Mach 1 is a variable!

[banaanbosse]

The Concorde is such an incredible piece of engineering, not even because of what it can do, we could probably make a significantly more impressive plane today but because it was even made in the first place. The golden age of aviation progress!

[jackson]

One important thing to mention is that the speed of sound is not relative to the ground, instead to the air around it. A 747 a few years ago had a large tailwind, causing the ground speed to be above Mach 1, but since relative to the air it was at its crusing speed of around Mach 0.9, it was not traveling above the speed of sound.

[adrianwilliams]

I love how accurate your reels are. It shows effort and I appreciate it

[amaclach]

The F16 can do Mach 2 for a couple of minutes on full afterburner. Concorde did that for hours at a time, super cruising (only used afterburners for takeoff and to push through the transonic phase), with 100 passengers sipping champagne.

[coltonstewart]

And it had a droop snoot. A snoot... that drooped. 😂

[AndreaCrisp]

Whoa!! This is so cool! Amazing scoop! Congratulation Cleo! It's well deserved. Thanks for sharing your curiosity with ua.

[Zveebo]

It’s nuts to think that you used to be able to fly London to New York in not much over two hours. Concorde is super cool – if you ever get to see one in person, it’s absolutely stunning.

[PaulJakma]

Concorde was the most incredible aircraft. Unrivalled performance - faster than nearly all military aircraft, and I don't know of any other aircraft, military or civilian, that could carry 10 tonnes of payload at mach 2 super-cruise for 2 hours.

Watched Concorde performing full-afterburner touch-and-gos training at Prestwick many a times. What a sound! What a plane.

[JeffSyam]

I am mechanical engineer by degree, and I took Aerodynamics as sub-subject of advance fluid-mechanics. CMIIW speed of sound in kph or mph depends on static ambient pressure. That said Mach 1 in sea level is not same speed (in terms of kph / mph) as Mach 1 in jet stream altitude +/- 30k-40k-ft.

[tzzNobe]

You made the Lego Corncornde very good omg

[GileadMaerlyn]

What? 460km/h for the fastest train?
Where did you get this number?
The French TGV speed record is at 574, 8 km/h, which is the fastest on steel rails, and the Japanese Maglev reached 603 km/h!

[cherrygirlw]

Actually, Mach one is not a fixed speed relative to the ground, it is, as it's name says it, the speed of sound, relative to the medium. It depends of where you are (in terms of altitude and in what the sound will be propagating (air, water, steel, etc...)), temperature and atmospheric pressure. Mach 1 = 1234 km/h only at 1013, 25 hPa and 20°C.