Mutt,
I believe that Old_smokey stated that EVERY airliner he had ever flown flew FASTER than the Mcrit
I've been mis-quoted!!!!
What I said was "
ALL cruise Mach Numbers are above Mcrit, even Maximum Range Cruise". I could also have said "ALL cruise at a CAS are below Mcrit, even Maximum Range Cruise".
Yep, I'll have to stick to my original quote, when at a Pressure Height where the tangent of the line drawn to the Drag Curve from the 0/0 origin is below Mcrit, then we cruise at a CAS. When at a Pressure Height where the tangent of the line drawn to the Drag Curve from the 0/0 origin is above Mcrit, then we cruise at a Mach Number. So, if I'm cruising at a Mach Number (and not a CAS), I'm above Mcrit, and this is the case 99% of the time. Once in a while we get a low and slow sector.
Regards,
Old Smokey