How fast is Concorde London to New York?

About Concorde With a take-off speed of 220 knots (250mph) and a cruising speed of 1350mph – more than twice the speed of sound - a typical London to New York crossing would take a little less than three and a half hours, as opposed to about eight hours for a subsonic flight.



The Concorde was the fastest commercial passenger aircraft in history, typically completing the London-to-New-York route in under 3.5 hours. To put this in perspective, a standard subsonic flight today takes roughly 7 to 8 hours. The Concorde cruised at a staggering speed of Mach 2.04 (about 1,350 mph or 2,180 km/h) at an altitude of 60,000 feet. The all-time record for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a passenger jet was set by a British Airways Concorde on February 7, 1996, flying from New York (JFK) to London (LHR) in just 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 59 seconds, aided by a strong tailwind. While the Concorde was retired in 2003, its legacy as a supersonic marvel remains unmatched in 2026. Passengers on these flights could actually see the curvature of the Earth from their windows while flying twice the speed of sound, arriving in New York "before" they left London due to the five-hour time difference and the aircraft's incredible velocity.

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The Concorde's retirement was due to a number of factors. The supersonic aircraft was noisy and extremely expensive to operate, which restricted flight availability. The operating costs required fare pricing that was prohibitively high for many consumers.

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Such speed didn't come cheap, though: A transatlantic flight required the high-maintenance aircraft to gulp jet fuel at the rate of one ton per seat, and the average round-trip price was $12,000.

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The Concorde's production and operation was an enormous financial undertaking for both the United Kingdom and France, contributing to sky-high ticket pricing for most consumers.

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Concorde is sadly no longer flying, but it is still possible to visit some of the remaining 18 airframes, there are others not open to the public but you can still see them.

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Concorde used the most powerful pure jet engines flying commercially. The Aircraft's four engines took advantage of what is known as 'reheat' technology, adding fuel to the final stage of the engine, which produced the extra power required for take-off and the transition to supersonic flight.

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So, to answer the question, yes, some fighter jets are faster than the Concorde. However, it is important to note that the Concorde was primarily designed for passenger travel, not for combat or aerial maneuvers.

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According to Venus, the jet is being developed to fly at Mach 9, or nine times the speed of sound. That equates to about 8,000km/h (5,000mph). By comparison, the Concorde flew at about Mach 2, Overture is being built for Mach 1.7, and Hermus and Destinus are designing their hypersonic planes for Mach 5.

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On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed shortly after take-off with all 109 occupants and four on the ground killed. This was the only fatal incident involving Concorde; commercial service was suspended until November 2001.

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Technical, financial, and regulatory hurdles make a return to the skies extremely unlikely. Concorde is an aircraft that captures the imagination and is instantly recognizable even to non-aviation fanatics.

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Of its final, celeb-studded passenger flight, CNN's Quest says: It didn't matter how famous you were, the star was the plane. Faster than a speeding bullet: 20 years after it last flew, Concorde remains unsurpassed in terms of speed in the world of commercial flight.

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Boom Supersonic, the US plane manufacturer, plans to have the answer with its new Overture jet, which is set to transport customers at twice the speed of today's fastest commercial aircraft, and is regarded as the new Concorde.

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The Concorde carries about 119,500 liters (31,569 gallons) of fuel and burns about 25,629 liters (6,771 gallons) per hour in the air. But fuel isn't just for flying. It's also used to balance the plane.

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Constructed out of aluminium, it was the first airliner to have analogue fly-by-wire flight controls. The airliner could maintain a supercruise up to Mach 2.04 (2,170 km/h; 1,350 mph) at an altitude of 60,000 ft (18.3 km).

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The Concorde was famously loud: a take-off at Washington airport in 1977 measured 119.4 decibels. By comparison, a clap of thunder hits 120 decibels while the pain threshold for the human ear is around 110.

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Despite the crew being trained and certified, no plan existed for the simultaneous failure of two engines on the runway, as it was considered highly unlikely. Aborting the takeoff would have led to a high-speed runway excursion and collapse of the landing gear, which also would have caused the aircraft to crash.

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Twenty Concorde aircraft were built, six for development and 14 for commercial service. All of these, except two of the production aircraft, are preserved. One aircraft was scrapped in 1994, and another was destroyed in the Air France Flight 4590 crash in 2000.

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