Surfing the Jetstream in a Boeing 777 - New Record?

[Douglas Ames]

Really makes you think... Ground speed of 745 mph. Wow, that's a tailwind!

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/12/travel/new-york-london-record-flight-time/index.html

[Mike Keville]

Yes, that often happens with the West-to-East Jetstream winds.  Sometime in the '80s I was aboard a TWA 727 enroute from LAX to Boston (red-eye flight).  At some point over the Midwest, the Captain announced that our ground speed was 717 mph.

[Howard Rush]

 Optimal Mach number with a tailwind is actually less than normal.  Dumb headline.

[Mike Keville]

Right.  True airspeed was, of course, significantly less than the speed over the ground.

[Wayne J. Buran]

We had a similar experience on the way back home from SFO to CLE on 12/3. Three hours and forty five minutes T/O to T/D. Great ride in a United 737.
Wayne

[John Park]

Have you read 'Red Ball In The Sky', by the late Charles F Blair?  It's one of my favourite aviation books, and contains a superb description of his record 7hr. 48min. New York-London flight on 31 January 1951 in his modified P51-B 'Excalibur III'.  At one point, a mid-Atlantic weather ship told him his ground speed, as indicated by their radar, was 520 knots, which is how he knew he'd got into the jetstream as planned.  If ever I visit the USA, I must make a point of going to see Excalibur III - if she's still visible at the Smithsonian...?

[Steve_Pollock]

Charles Blair's Excalibur III (actually a P-51C) is restored and hanging in the Udvar-Hazy Space Museum Annex near Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, which is well worth a day's visit.  Check: http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?object=nasm_A19530088000

[Douglas Ames]

Optimal Mach number with a tailwind is actually less than normal.  Dumb headline.

Yes, poor choice of words by the writer, then again what do they know?
"Where's the BOOM? There's supposed to be a BOOM!..."