(no subject)

I HAVE A PHYSICS QUESTION. Okay, maybe more of a math question. Anyway. Skyfire can fly halfway around the globe in half an hour. How fast is he going?

I guess we can assume he's flying in the troposphere, at the equator, and probably against the rotation of the Earth. Ignore physical constraints, like whether he'd burn up at the ludicrous speed he's going. Let's get all science-y up in this thing, yo.

EDIT: okay, the cartoon just says "halfway around the globe in half an hour" but Marvel got all detailed:

In jet-fighter mode, Jetfire's unique swing-wing design allows him to take off like a normal jet and then, pulling his wings back, reach speeds of up to Mach 4.2. Adding twin supersonic combustion ramjet (i.e. scramjet) engine modules along with twin liquid hydrogen fuel tanks allows Jetfire to achieve orbital velocities, or to even escape Earth's gravity altogether. With this capability, he can launch like a missile, shoot up above the atmosphere, and, at a speed of Mach 29, dive down like a blazing meteor (hence his name) half a world away only 30 minutes later.

So what they seem to be describing is a parabolic arc, specifying max velocities, distance traveled, and time to travel. FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU- I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE QUESTION IS ANYMORE