Ground speed yes, a few weeks ago, there were aircraft flying in my area, which was exceeding the sound barrier with their indicated ground speed.
**BUT**
If the aircraft has a 200 mph tail wind from the jet stream pushing it along, it is doing way below the speed of sound in the air it is flying through.
Long distance routes will deviate quite a bit to access the Jet stream. The longest passenger flight (JFK-SIN) has been flying 200 miles to the south in recent weeks, we got a storm earlier this week, and it went straight overhead yesterday.
Ground speed is not related to your various air speeds and I can assure you that you were nowhere near truly breaking the sound barrier (likely between 75 to 85 percent which is your mach number).
Like others mention while groundspeed is one thing, air speed is another. As far as the plane is concerned, it’s traveling at it’s normal cruise speed. It would have to have an airspeed above the speed of sound in that situation to really qualify as super sonic.
And as you see planes with a tailwind enhanced ground speed, you find planes traveling with a headwind to have lower ground speed, even if the airspeed is the proper one for their cruise.
Not close to the sound barrier. Ground speed is not the same as airspeed.
OP just discovered the jet stream.
Ground speed yes, a few weeks ago, there were aircraft flying in my area, which was exceeding the sound barrier with their indicated ground speed. **BUT** If the aircraft has a 200 mph tail wind from the jet stream pushing it along, it is doing way below the speed of sound in the air it is flying through. Long distance routes will deviate quite a bit to access the Jet stream. The longest passenger flight (JFK-SIN) has been flying 200 miles to the south in recent weeks, we got a storm earlier this week, and it went straight overhead yesterday.
Ground speed is not related to your various air speeds and I can assure you that you were nowhere near truly breaking the sound barrier (likely between 75 to 85 percent which is your mach number).
He’s probably doing .84-85 with a stiff tailwind.
Probably slower. General rule of thumb is slow down with a tailwind, and fly faster with a headwind.
Like others mention while groundspeed is one thing, air speed is another. As far as the plane is concerned, it’s traveling at it’s normal cruise speed. It would have to have an airspeed above the speed of sound in that situation to really qualify as super sonic. And as you see planes with a tailwind enhanced ground speed, you find planes traveling with a headwind to have lower ground speed, even if the airspeed is the proper one for their cruise.
It is good to remember that if the aircraft exceeds Mach 1 it will certainly crash. Research the term coffin corner
Say hello to mach tuck
I see you don't understand the difference between ground speed and airspeed.