The base average cruising airspeed in aviation for a long distance flight that planes fly around is between 880 to a maximum speed of 926 kilometers per hour which when converted to knots the average speed is between 475 to a top speed of 500 when measured in knots and when converted in to miles per hour the cruise speed an airplane flies at high speeds turns out to be between 547 and 575 mph.
Yet there are a wide range of factors that effect the indicated airspeed of commercial airplanes and we will go through them one by one. So lets answer the question, how fast do commercial jets fly.
We will not consider planes that are slower than commercial planes like general aviation aircrafts, human powered aircrafts and single engine planes.
What Impacts the Speed at Which an Aircraft can Fly
Since the atmosphere itself actually moves around it makes the topic of a commercial jets different speeds during air travel a complicated matter. Aircraft designers and pilots have to take in to concern many more factors than the average person driving a car or any other form of transportation.
The ground speed of a plane and regional jets is the speed that a plane can fly from point A to point B across the ground beneath it. When compared to cars planes and pilots must take in to consideration the head and tail winds when calculating speed of an aircraft. Aircrafts fly faster with a tail wind. Tail winds and head winds impact true airspeed of a jet.
Another thing that pilots have to take in to account the the air that is moving over the wings of a plane which effects decisions made in the cockpit of the commercial aircraft.
True Airspeed or TAS is the best way to measure airspeed of long-haul commercial airliners given it factors in air density and temperature that changes along with altitude and weather conditions. Airplanes do come with airspeed gauges but this only shows the Indicated Air Speed or IAS that is not as accurate and has to be corrected.
How Fast Does a Commercial Plane Fly
Let take a look at some popular commercial planes along with their speeds. Do note that Mach 1 is considered to be the speed of sound. Fast commercial airplanes fly at these speeds.
Boeing 737 MAX is a good aircraft to fly which has these stats: mach 0.79, 453 knots, 521 mph
Airbus A320neo planes cruise at : mach 0.78, 450 knots, 518 mph
Boeing 747-8 can do: mach 0.855, 490 knots, 564 mph
Boeing 787 Dreamliner are capable of : mach 0.85, 488 knots, 562 mph
Airbus A380 manages to achieve: mach 0.85, 488 knots, 562 mph
Embraer EMB 14 performs at : mach 0.78, 450 knots, 518 mph
Concorde SST (retired) was capable of: Mach 1.75, 1165 knots, 1341 mph
As you can see the Concorde is the only aircraft that is capable of being faster than Mach 1 and is capable of supersonic flight. We can also judge that the average speed of commercial planes is between 518 and 564 mph. Also the average take-off speed is 173 to 207 mph and the average landing speed is between 150 to 185mph. Fast commercial planes can fly at 564 mph like the Boeing 747-8 which is designed to fly at speeds above the competition.
How to Measure a Planes Speed
The base measurements unit is nautical miles. One nautical mile is considered to be the equivalent to 1.15 square miles and a speed of 1 nm per hour is referred to as a kt. Commercial flights usually use kts as their benchmark.
Aircrafts come with their own boundaries they cant fly too fast or fly too slow. It is generally accepted that an aircraft should not fly over Mach 1, also known as the speed of sound.
By going to fast the plane can lose control because the air forms shockwaves on the wings of the aircraft which can make it lose control.
Since estimating the actual speed of an aircraft can be a difficult task and needs some math work aircrafts now come equipped with what is called a machmeter when an aircraft faces this type of issue.
By using a machmeter the passenger aircraft can tell the pilot what a safe speed to fly at is without having to do all the calculations manually and when the aircraft flies at a certain altitude it can fly at a safe mach number.
Different Flight Speeds
At higher altitudes of 10000 feet a plane must never ever fly over 250kts and if they are closer to busier airports they must fly slower than 200kts. This makes flying considerably safer.
Climb Speeds
Since getting to a safe high altitude to fly higher as quickly as possible is of the essence because it give the aircraft more options in the case of a loss of power or an emergency situations pilots try to reach this threshold.
To launch the aircraft at the optimal climb rate helps the plane to reach higher heights faster but this the forward speed of the plane is sacrificed.
Once the plane has reached a safer altitude the pilot goes to more effective climb by reducing engine power, lowering the nose and increasing forward speeds at the cost of a slower rate of climb.
Cruise Speed
This is a decision made in advance. All the pilot does is set the aircraft engine power for the flight at hand and the Mach number or airspeed determines range and ground speed. Most aircrafts use a similar cruise value for their flights when compared to each other.
In a sub sonic aircraft a flight can go up to .9 or .95 Mach because the air pressure is increased over certain parts of the aircraft and even the plane is flying at less than Mach 1 the airflow is closer to the speed of sound.
An aircraft must fly at quick speeds to prevent the flight from stalling. This means pilots must fly the plane in a way where they don’t stall because of low speed and don’t go out of control due to high speeds.
Flying through turbulence, aircrafts may reduce their speeds as well.
Descent Speeds
There are two types of descents to land on a runway, a landing approach and a cruise descent. Cruising is what happens when a private jet is lowering its altitude with having too much forward speed to prevent going over the maximum mach number. The speed itself doesn’t change much since all that needs to be done is bringing down the engine trust and leaving the rest to gravity. This reduces the amount of power and drag devices needed to slow the plane down. Since the air flow over the wings reduces in speed pilots resort to using flaps to generate lift that wings make.
Interesting Facts about the Speed of Planes
The weight of the aircraft also affects the speed it can take off along the runway as well as other aspects like the distance of landing, climb rate, range and maneuver ability. If a plane needs to operate to its max range its important to reduce cargo loads.
A runway length of a minimum of 1800 meters in length is necessary to get planes off the ground and it can go up to 2400 meters length depending on the size of the plane. The larger planes can’t fly using the smaller runways.
An aircraft’s Sonic boom is an event which occurs when a plane goes reaches the sound barrier and the best way to reduce the sonic boom is to increase altitude.
On the other hand military aircrafts are designed to fly between 1.8 and 9.6 mach, which in terms of mach numbers is considerably faster than it commercial counterparts.
United and American airlines commercial planes cruise between 547 to 575 mph. Recently orders from United and American Airlines have been placed to purchase boom supersonic which is a supersonic plane that is twice the speed of current planes in the market. It is designed to take you across the Atlantic in 3.5 hours.