Videos capturing the ‘real speed of planes’ shows just how fast they actually go

If you're a nervous flyer, sorry in advance.

Someone has shared a video of a plane jetting through the sky - and it's blowing our minds.

Why is it that when you're travelling in a plane, you can never truly assess how fast you're actually flying?

Even from the ground, it's hard to truly understand the speed of an aircraft.

I mean, it certainly doesn't feel like 600mph - just imagine that in a car.

Now, a video has shown just how quickly a passenger jet actually moves when we're not looking at it from a great distance.

You can watch the clip below:

There is actually a name for the effect which makes us feel as though planes are not going so fast.

It's called the Motion Parallax, and is based on how quickly an object moves through our field of vision.

For example, a car driving very fast on the motorway with things moving past very quickly appears to be faster than a plane up in the sky, which lingers in our field of vision for much longer.

However, this video bypasses the Motion Parallax and shows just how quick planes really are.

Twitter/@historyinmemes

While most planes travel at speeds between 500-600mph, there are a number of aircraft that achieve over double that speed.

The supersonic passenger jet Concorde, for example, had a cruising speed of just over 1340mph, allowing it to make Atlantic crossings in record time.

However, even this pales in comparison to the fastest air-breathing aircraft ever manufactured. This was the Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird. First designed and built in the 1960s, the SR-71 was intended for use as a reconnaissance aircraft operating at high altitudes.

Twitter/@historyinmemes

It's outfitted with stealth technology, but is also so fast it could actually outrun surface to air missiles - with a maximum speed clocking in at an astonishing 2,200mph.

That makes us feel a bit dizzy, tbh.

In another clip, a common airliner - the Boeing 737 - can be seen travelling at 545mph.

The plane can be seen gliding through the clouds, as the video is captured from the window of another jet.

Given how high up you are when going at the cruising speed, and how the plane hopefully slows down when it comes in to land, the video looks really rather alarming. The jet absolutely shoots past - it almost doesn't look real.

It's probably best not to think about this when boarding your next flight.

Topics: Travel, Science, Twitter

Lucy Devine