I suspect that a 787 traveling at 801 MPH airspeed might suffer some damage to the control surfaces. 787s aren't designed to break the sound barrier.
And I would argue that not damaging the plane matters more than how long it takes to get there.
And I would argue that not damaging the plane matters more than how long it takes to get there.
If I'm swimming down stream at 1 mph in water moving at 4mph, relative to the bank I'm doing 5mph relative to the water 1mph.
No sonic booms where involved.
boyter asked how anything but time from A to B could be relevant. Well, not damaging the plane is relevant. And therefore the airspeed not being 801 MPH matters.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110408073905/http://www.flight...
This is incorrect. The speed of sound in an ideal gas is a function of temperature only, and not its density. Namely, it is sqrt(gamma x R x T), where R and gamma are unchanging properties of the gas.