I don’t know much about plains as i am a old Navy sailor but i flew back last week on June 11 on Korean Air Flt KE35 and we were going at times over 700 MPH . I looked up info on the plain and see it is not rated for that speed . Can any one explain to me how this is normal for this plain . Thanks for any help Norm
Ground speeds include the effect of wind, and can be considerable. The airplane only “feels” the speed through the air.
I am traveling frequently between US and EU and experiencing the benefits of high altitude jet stream - used by aviation it can mean up to one hour difference between the flights. It can add (or substract) in average 100 mph to the ground speed.
Boeing planes are rated usually at higher air speeds than Airbus ones. An example of jet stream use that pushed a 777 to ground speed of 745mph (arrived an hour and half before schedule):
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne … -time.html
Thanks SoNice67 for the article now i understand how it works . I am glad we found the jet stream for a while as i was not looking forward to setting in economy for over 14 hours to Atlanta.
As a hint - when you book a flight next time, look at the aircraft. I am going to Germany soon and Lufthansa has a fleet of B747-800 (Mach 0.855) and Airbus A340-600(Mach 0.82) between Wash DC and Frankfurt/Munich.
The cost is like $30 more for the 747 and the scheduled flight time is 30 minutes less (on an 8 hour flight). It’s a no-brainier for me.
That’s interesting how the jet stream affects flight
Another factor is whether or not the pilots are using “going home” power. 
Ha ha 