here is a question

[kucher]

Tonite I was on a westjet flight and I was reading the westjet magazine. It says cruising speed of 530 mph but we were doing over 600 mph. As well it says maximum altitude 42000 ft and we were just barley under that. What happens if you go over 42000 ft and how fast can you go before it is too fast.?

[tb_neg]

The speed you saw was your ground speed, not airspeed. If you had a tailwind, your speed over the ground would be 600, but your airspeed was probably 100 plus the 500 in the air your plane was going. The pilots would not go faster than the design limits of the plane, including altitude. The air is thinner the higher you go, and less maneuverable, but you are still safe as the plane would never be flown unsafely.

With ground speeds, that's why sometimes it's faster on the return trip than the outbound trip, due to winds, especially in the winter.