Glad you took the effort to ask the question, not under my skin at all.
I have a grasp of what the maximum operating speed means, that speed which is safe to operate within.
And here is why. When the aircraft encounters turbulence the G-loading (force of gravity) can change in a very short amount of time in several different load directions (pitch, roll and yaw). If the wings are supporting 100 tons of jet in level unaccelerated flight and then encounter turbulence, the loads carried by the wings, attach points and all of the other supporting structures can virtually instantaneously experience an increase of 30%-40%-50% or more in one direction followed by a change in the opposite, or combination (twisting) direction. It's very hard on equipment; all of this happening at close to the speed of sound. With a minor change in temperature one can find themself immediately at a higher airspeed magnifying the overload condition.
It is for this reason that manufacturers are required to build aircraft much stronger than the minimum acceptable levels under normal operation. And the jets need to last a long time; think decades.
The written airspeed, weight, loading limitations are much lower than what the aircraft could actually perform at-under ideal conditions. This provides the safety margin that is so important for all of us.
Look up the Boeing 787 wing stress test on Youtube. The wings are subjected to extreme overstress conditions, far beyond what the crews are allowed to operate in, before they actually fail. There is a large margin between the "written" limitations and the actual physical limits of the 757/767-pick your jet.
For somebody (not you) to say that the 767 limiting airspeed at sea level is 360 knots, therefore the jet is not capable of flying any faster at sea level or 1,000' would be an incorrect statement.
Last edited by Northbeach; 13th Oct 2011 at 14:25.