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LiveScience
LiveScience
Sarah Wells

How did the Concorde fly so fast?

A photo of the Concorde plane.

The Concorde passenger jet set a record when it flew between New York City and London in 2 hours, 52 minutes, 59 seconds. The supersonic plane could fly at more than twice the speed of sound. But just how fast was this aircraft, and what made it so speedy?

The jet, which flew from 1976 to 2003, had a takeoff speed of 250 mph (402 km/h) and an average cruising speed of 1,350 mph (2,173 km/h). In comparison, a Boeing 737-700, one of the most common airplane models flown nowadays, has a takeoff speed of 173 mph (278 km/h) and a cruising speed of 514 mph (828 km/h).

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