Concorde carried passengers across the Atlantic at about twice the speed of sound. What was its cruising speed in kilometres per hour?
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Answer
About 2,200 km/h
Friction with the air heated the fuselage so much that the aircraft grew roughly 15 to 25 cm longer during supersonic flight.
How to estimate it
Sound travels at 340 m/s at sea level, which is 1,225 km/h. It slows in cold air, and at Concorde's cruising altitude, where it is about minus 57 °C, sound moves at roughly 1,060 km/h. Twice that speed is 2 × 1,060 = 2,120 km/h. Concorde actually cruised at Mach 2.04, about 2,200 km/h.
Source: British Airways; Aerospatiale and BAC
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