Tail wind tall tale?
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: NI
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It's the Inverse Gell-Mann Effect at work; once you find a news story that you know is incorrect or sensationalised, you start wondering how many other news reports about things outside your knowledge are also rubbish.
Back in the 80s when I lived in Bermuda and flew back and forth to UK a lot we did BDA-LHR in just over 5 hours on a Tristar , i think a 500. The captain remarked that it was his fastest ever Atlantic crossing and that the jetstream flowing from the south west almost the whole way from Bermuda to the UK was the reason behind it. Return trip three days later took a looooong time though.
Having suffered from a number of 200mph++ head winds I've always hoped that one day I'd get a 200mph ++ tail wind but........ 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Cape Town, ZA
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Murphy's Law. If the tail wind speed equals your airspeed, you will get there in exactly half the normal time. If the head wind speed equals your airspeed, the flight will take infinitely long...
Join Date: Dec 2013
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As a meteorologist the strongest upper-level winds I've ever heard about were back in January of 1982 when there were 250-270 kt winds along the New England coast. Winds over 200 kt are a bit common in late winter when there's strong coupling of the polar and subtropical jets. The Northeast US and around the Aleutians seem to be where it happens most.
