Some of the airlines have information displays during flights (mostly international flights) which show both tail wind and head wind speeds. Especially in the winter I was often amazed at those velocities. I recall a discussion I had a number of years ago when my SIL was still flying B-52s and he was surprised by what I was observing since he had not experienced them, a phenomenon as I recall we credited to the difference in normal altitudes between the two.
I will have to bring this up to him again since he is now flying wide bodies internationally.
As an aside, since I flew NA to Europe more than NA to Asia I commonly got the benefit of reduced flight time on the way over. On the way back when I would much more have appreciated the boast---I had the opposite with extended flight times.
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