A passenger jet flies at about 575 mph once it's at cruising altitude. That's nearly nine times faster than a car might typically be cruising on the highway. So why does a plane in flight look like it's just inching across the sky' I am an aerospace educator who relies on the laws of physics when teaching about aircraft. These same principles of physics help explain why looks can be deceiving when it comes to how fast an object is moving. If you watch a plane accelerating toward takeoff, it appears to be moving very quickly. It's not until the plane is in the air and has reached cruising altitude that it appears to be moving very slowly. That's because there is often no independent reference point when the plane is in the sky. A reference point is a way to measure the speed of the airplane. If there are no contrails or clouds surrounding it, the plane is moving against a completely uniform blue sky. This can make it very hard to perceive just how fast a plane is moving. And because...
learn more
