What would happen to a passenger aircraft if it went faster?

Question

What would happen if say Delta took a B757-200 and istead of flying its crusing speed of 530 they made it go up to 700 or 950 MPH is that even possabile?

But if it can go faster and get there prices would go up = more money for you!

Answer 1

Others have covered it pretty well, but the speed of sound is the absolute limiting factor. The pilot could put the plane into a dive and reach the speed of sound, but they wouldn't be able to reuse the airplane again, or the pilot for that matter.
Someone else pointed out about how much drag increases. Well, drag is a product of lift and the faster the plane goes, the more drag, so the more power it needs.
The Convair 880 was the fastest Airliner in history, other than the Concord. It has been out of service for many many years. Delta took delivery of their first 880 with a flight between two cities they wanted to serve. (Way back before airline deregulation.) That speed record still stands today. However, they discovered that by slowing the airplane down from 625 mph to 550 mph, they were able to SAVE 1000 pounds of fuel per engine per hours and it was a 4 engine airplane!
The King, Elvis Presley, bought one of Delta's Convair 880s and I do believe it is on display at Graceland.

Answer 2

There is an aerodynamic and structural limit to how fast you can operate those aircraft. Besides you don't enough power to reach the speeds you speak of without descending somewhat. As any transport approaches it's design limit (Vmo or Mmo) the first thing that happens is you get an overspeed warning in the cockpit. As the speed increases you will get a noticeable buffet that will increase in intensity, it feels like light turbulence. High speed buffet is not that big of a deal but it is a warning that everybody pays attention to. It was supposedly reported that during the testing for the original B707, Boeing test pilots took the 707 either supersonic or well into transonic. with no adverse effects.
Keep in mind that when we are cruising at altitude with a true airspeed of 550 mph or whatever. The airspeed indicator in the cockpit will not be showing anywhere near that number. It will indicate something much less than that, more likely, depending on the altitude, more like 250 kts to 350kts.

Answer 3

I am a pilot and can tell you that the engines choosen by engineers for a particular aircraft can only put out so much power. the engine that is chosen when designed is the engine that has enough power, thrust as we call it, to support the weight of the aircraft fully loaded. the plane will not go faster unless a bigger engine with a higher rated thrust is attached. but then theres a risk of airframe damage if the plane is overloaded, too much speed and forces on the plane. you can speed a plane up by diving it just like riding a bike down hill. i think the object though is to stay up!

Answer 4

If you could "just do it" and magically make it go that fast, it would damage the airframe and may also get control reversal (which happens at supersonic speeds) and be uncontrollable. Assuming nothing gets ripped off from the stress, the control reversal problem assumes the control surfaces aren't removed in the process. So I don't think it would happen. Another problem, like they had to control on Concorde for example, is at that speed the airframe will actually start heating up because of friction, so if the speed itself doesn't rip the airplane up, the heating of the airframe might do it in too. Concorde ran fuel through passages in the fuselage to keep the outer skin cooled. Ultimately I don't think any amount of power would make a big turd like a 757 go supersonic, just doesn't have the aerodynamics to do it. Hope the above helps you though.

Answer 5

No it is not. The top speed of the 757-200 per Boeing's website is 609 mph. Chances are, anything higher than that would cause the jet to break apart. Also, 950mph would more than exceed the speed of sound which is not allowed unless the plane will not fly over residential areas.

Answer 6

If it was a Boeing B757-200, it probably wouldn't make it to the destination at all. It doesn't have enough power to cruise at that speed. Let's say even if it did have enough power, that aircraft is not designed to go 700-900 MPH. Something would most likely break on the plane and then cause the entire plane to break apart or crash.

Answer 7

The increase in distance is trivial (only 1/10 of one percent at 35,000 feet), and it's much more efficient to fly high because the air is much thinner, and so air resistance (and drag, the main source of fuel consumption) is greatly reduced. In fact, the higher and faster an aircraft flies, the more fuel-efficient it tends to be. The limit is reached when the "aircraft" is so high that there's no real atmosphere at all, and when it is moving so fast that it is effectively in orbit. The International Space Station, for example, requires essentially no fuel, since air resistance is nearly nonexistent at its altitude, and its velocity keeps it in orbit. At very high speeds, heating of the airframe at lower altitudes is also a problem. Even ordinary subsonic commercial airliners heat up by about 30° C because of friction with the outside air while they are cruising.

Answer 8

They cant go any faster. First off the speeds your talking about are in the transonic/supersonic range and trasport aircraft arn't made to go that fast, they just cant. They are not built for the stresses incountered at those speeds and they arnt built for the high temperatures that flying that fast creates. Not to mention you cant fly supersonic over land, which is one of the main reasons the concord failed.

Answer 9

getting closer to Mach 1 drag increase a lot, so a B757 will probably never fly faster than Mach=1....but in case transonic airplanes fly accidentally faster than mach1, for example in a dive, the airframe will be damaged, and it become uncontrollable...it seems to have occurred to some Me-262 during WW2....

Answer 10

Well The plane would fall apart. 650ish knots is the spead of sound so around 700 mph would break the speed of soud which requires a lot of extra equipmnet saftey, cost, engines, plus you can only fly over uninhabited places by humans so pretty much the oceans are the only place you could do it.