An unusual max. speed of an A320-233

With a strong enough tailwind I'd believe it, I doubt the pilot is going to waste his time making stuff up.

I'm sure that the pilot was stating Ground speed not True Airspeed. Then it is very believable with no danger to the aircraft. Wind velocity is unknown. 🙂

13KM=42,650 ft.
556 Knots @ 42,000 Ft = .97 Mach (well over max speed of .82)

I flew from Heathrow to LAX last Thursday, our 777 said it was doing 602 mph @ 38,000 ft with a 56 knot tailwind...

We arrived 45 minutes early...I believe it.

ok, if the ground speed was 0.84 mach, what could be the true airspeed? And what about the FL? I mean no aircraft is allowed to fly above 410 isn't it? And especially A320 on over 420? What did the captain mean by 13km height?

Ground speed is not referenced to Mach, only airspeed. The max. Mach for a A320 (from Airbus website) is .82 Mach. That equals approx. 473 Knots at altitudes above FL 350 (temp. -55 degrees C).

The Max. altitude for a A320 is not given on the Airbus website. Normally commercial aircraft don't go above FL 410 but it's not a regulation, some may be certified to higher altitudes. FL 410 equals 12.47 Km. The Captain may have rounded the value up or he could have been at FL 420 (12.8 Km). You can't be precise when stating altitude in Km. It's just to impress the passengers with a unit of measure that they can relate to with their automotive experience. There is a tendency to over estimate.
🙂

Airbus A320
Short to Medium-Range Jetliner.

PERFORMANCE:
Max Level Speed at altitude: 560 mph (900 km/h) at 30,000 ft (9,140 m), Mach 0.82
at sea level: unknown
cruise speed: 525 mph (845 km/h)
Initial Climb Rate unknown
Service Ceiling 39,000 ft (11,890 m)
Range 2,700 nm (5,000 km)
g-Limits unknown

Obviously the above figures are not official from Airbus website, I found them here. 😉

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/jetliner/a320/

that is what I've noticed, a polish captain wanted to impress his passangers, I think, by giving this number etc.
So what do you think, It was on FL410 with 0.84M with ground speed 556knts and unknown true airspeed?

Because due to max operating speed of 940Km/h 1030 is way too much and the airplane would fall apart or just start loosing parts, that's my guess.

PS- I also have wonderful pics of this plane which I'll try to upload during the day showing exterior part of engine #1 welded just like this by someone what looks just incredibly bad and dangerous and also part of interior above your head (light, air nozzle, and service button) fixed with duck tape or even with something else like two plasters what looks so horryfying! I couldn't believe what I saw 😳 . I also have been wondering where are those airplanes by Wizz Air from. I mean, what airline owned them before Wizz Air and how old they are.

I've just looked on their site here...........
http://www.wizzair.com/index.shtml

London to Poland for £14.98, your gonna get what you pay for 🙄 I'm interested to see your pics though Sico2

The Mach speed is true, the speed in knots for a given Mach changes with temperature. Unless he was exceeding max Mach, and I don't believe he was, his speed was Mach .82. That's 472 KTAS.

The Altitude of FL 390 (11.8 Km) is the funny part. He should have stated it as 12 Km instead of 13 Km. The Captain probably used a quick mental formula to convert feet to meters that is fast and easy but not very accurate. Similar to the way many people convert Fahrenheit to Celsius quickly but not accurately. 🙂

thanks CRJ for info, you are a brainiac on this forum, really.
I'll try to upload these 2 photos, but I need to put them on some server first, because I don't have any website or anything. Can I maybe send it to someone from admins to put it for me and I could write a comment to this or any ideas?

ps-I think I need to sign in for this forum, I mean, how many answers did I give or receive already ?

You can use image shack, you don't even have to sign up.

http://www.imageshack.us/
🙂

ok, I'll try that, but the images are pretty big, don't know how to make them small.. hm..

PS-am I in already? I've paid and everything...

Excellent! How long did it take you? 🙂

hey marvellous, I'm in! ee. it took me.. like 1h? 🙂)

I'll try to upload the photos

1 hour? 😳 You´re a lucky guy...

You know I think I'm not, maybe I'm wrong, but I might know what is the problem. Just after paying the $5 there is a little information that you have to register straight away after that. I almost wanted to shut down the website and wait for the email when I saw this little link saying 'now you have to register" And I think people just forget about this. They are paying $5 and that is it. But the money is for paypal and flyawaysim.com doesn't know who wants it and paid for it. That is my guess.