[BlandDuck]

Look at the bright side, at least flights today are still as fast as 60 years ago.

For trains, you would be hard pressed to find a route that is not significantly slower today than 60 years ago.

[lqet]

> For trains, you would be hard pressed to find a route that is not significantly slower today than 60 years ago.

It took 64 years (until 1997) to again reach the 1933 speed of the Flying Hamburger [0] - 138 minutes from Hamburg to Berlin. Trains today need about 115 minutes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRG_Class_SVT_877

[idlewords]

They are not; the 707 flew noticeably faster than modern airliners (525 knots cruise, compare to 485 knots for the Boeing 787).

[jjk166]

Max cruising speed of 707-121 was 593 mph at 30,000 ft. Max Crusing speed of 787 is 593 mph at 35,000 ft.

[WalterBright]

The cruise speed is selected for maximum fuel efficiency. The airplanes can fly faster, and do under special circumstances.

Your gas car's maximally efficient speed is about 35 mph.

[idlewords]

If you want to go by top speeds, for the 787 (entered service 2011) it's Mach 0.9, for the A-350 (2015) it's 0.89, while for the 707-120 (1958) it's Mach 0.91. The 747 (1970) can go Mach 0.94.

Modern jets are built to fly slightly slower than early jetliners, both in normal operation and at top speed. The reason is fuel economy, but the difference is real.

[WalterBright]

That doesn't disagree with what I wrote.

[idlewords]

You're saying planes have a top speed faster than their cruise speed; I'm saying it doesn't matter which of the two metrics you compare on, older jets are faster on both.

[TylerE]

Mach really isn't an appropriate unit here as it is highly depended on altitude and atmospheric conditions.

[AnarchismIsCool]

No, try again. Not correct in any way.

[TylerE]

Mach is highly depended on altitude and atmospheric conditions. It is a ratio, not a speed.

[AnarchismIsCool]

They're not faster in any absolute sense, look at the wing sweep angle of new vs old jets or the fact that early low bypass ratio jets have a much higher exhaust velocity, the old jets are marginally faster by every metric.

[WalterBright]

The airplanes can fly faster than their cruise speed. It's just not economic to do so.

[AnarchismIsCool]

Modern airplanes can exceed their cruising speed in a relative sense but older planes have a higher absolute maximum speed, as well as cruising speed.

Why is everyone trying to ackshewally this? The stat's are publicly available. Aircraft are optimized for a particular speed range and that impacts the designed cruising speed as well as Vs and VNE.

[blks]

For USA, that is. In Europe speed has increased drastically.