Riding a Wild Wind, a Norwegian 787 Breaks a Speed Record

When Randal Miles woke up from a nap during his flight from Paris to Los Angeles last week, he opened the interactive map on his seat-back screen to see how much longer he'd be in the air. But the number that caught his eye was the jet's speed. The Norwegian jet was flying at 770 mph—about 200 mph faster than its standard cruising velocity. “I thought, ‘Damn, this thing is hauling ass,’” Miles says. “I thought I was either sleepy or it was reading wrong.