How long was the first flight from New York to London?

Using the reliable DC-4 aircraft, it began passenger services from New York to Hurn Airport near Bournemouth in England (with stops at Gander, Newfoundland, and Shannon, Ireland) in October 1945. Each one-way flight lasted about 14 hours. Pan American debuted its own flights a few days later also using the DC-4.



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Meanwhile, Departed Flights notes that, back in 1980, British Airways' New York-London flights were timed to take three hours and 45 minutes.

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A: The tracks across the Atlantic are determined daily to take into account the meteorological conditions of the moment. If there are strong winds, the eastbound tracks will be farther north to take advantage of them, while the westbound flights will be routed south to avoid the headwinds.

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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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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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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.

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Delays were frequent, turbulence common, and air sickness bags often needed. People also forget that well into the 1960s, air travel was far more dangerous than it is today. In the 1950s and 1960s US airlines experienced at least a half dozen crashes per year – most leading to fatalities of all on board.

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Why do between the US & Europe go far north, sometimes over Greenland? Most people assume this is to remain as close as possible to land in case of an emergency — i.e. keeping close to airports in case a diversion is needed. In fact has nothing to do with emergencies. It's simply the shortest distance.

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As previously mentioned, the primary reason for the difference in travel times with flight direction is due to the jet stream. This is a high-altitude wind that blows from the west to the east across the planet.

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The most common reason is that there are no airstrips or airports on many of the small islands, so if a plane had to make an emergency landing, it would be difficult to find a place to land. Additionally, the Pacific Ocean is vast and remote, so if a plane were to go down, it would be very difficult to find.

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The twice-weekly Air Canada service between London Heathrow and St John's, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, is the flight with the shortest route across the Atlantic, stretching just 2,315 miles and taking under five hours.

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Airlines quickly realized the value of jet streams and began implementing them while planning routes. Since the jet streams flow from west to east, they make one leg of the journey much faster (when flying with the stream) and one slower (against the stream).

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Very easily. The shortest commercially flown transatlantic crossing is from Recife, Brazil, to Dakar, Senegal, which is 1,975 miles. The range of a 737–800 (per Wikipedia) is 2,935 miles. It's even just possible over the North Atlantic in one hop.

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It's simply the shortest distance. Between continents, airplanes follow what are called “great circle” routes, accounting for the earth's curvature.

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