Ray Devlin

712 knots. 820 miles per hour over the ground. Yet not supersonic. The fastest I’ve ever travelled in a commercial aircraft. This moment came high over the North Atlantic, riding the jet stream at altitude. The number on the screen looks extraordinary, and it is, but it needs some context. Despite the headline speed, this wasn’t supersonic flight. At cruise altitude the air is thin and cold, and what really matters to the aeroplane is Mach number… speed relative to the air around it. This was about Mach 0.86, right where the Boeing 747 was designed to live. And that design matters. The 747’s wing was revolutionary… highly swept (37.5degrees), exceptionally strong, and optimised for sustained high-subsonic flight. That sweep delays the onset of shockwaves as airflow accelerates over the wing, allowing the aircraft to cruise faster and more efficiently than anything that came before it. In the late 1960s, this was unprecedented, a wing built not just to lift mass, but to manage speed. Add a powerful tailwind and suddenly the planet starts slipping past very quickly indeed. That’s what I’ve always loved about the 747. It doesn’t shout about speed. It simply absorbs it, 1,000,000 lbs of aeroplane, fuel, people and purpose, and it carries on with quiet confidence. Elegant. Honest. Utterly over-engineered. A Queen built to move the world, quickly and gracefully. If stories like this resonate, my new book JUMBO dives deep into the engineering, the decisions, and the moments that defined over five decades of the Boeing 747. Preorder now on Amazon or in any good bookstore. More little Jumbo snippets coming in the next few weeks. Sorry if you think I’m spamming you but I want to share a book I’ve poured my heart into. #Boeing747 #QueenOfTheSkies #AviationHistory #AvGeek #FlightDeckView #Mach89 #JetStream #NorthAtlantic #AviationPhotography #LongHaul #JUMBOBook #LoveThe747