Cruising at Mach 2 – or 1,350 mph – at 60,000 feet, Concorde flew five miles above and 800 mph faster than the subsonic 747s plodding across the Atlantic.

The Concorde was famously faster than a rifle bullet, cruising at Mach 2.04 (roughly 1,350 mph), which is twice the speed of sound. To put this in perspective, it was nearly three times faster than modern subsonic commercial jets like the Boeing 787 or Airbus A350, which typically cruise at about Mach 0.85. The Concorde could fly from London to New York in under 3.5 hours, whereas a standard jet takes 7 to 8 hours. Remarkably, because the aircraft flew westward faster than the Earth's rotation, passengers would arrive in New York at a local time earlier than their departure time from London—essentially "beating the sun." While it was slower than specialized military interceptors like the SR-71 Blackbird (which reached Mach 3.3), it was the fastest civil aircraft ever to enter regular service. Its speed was so extreme that the friction with the air at Mach 2 would cause the aircraft's fuselage to heat up and actually expand in length by up to 10 inches during the flight, a gap that was clearly visible in the flight deck's control panels.