Aviation questions
What is a knot in aviation?
A knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour — the standard unit used in aviation, and at sea, rather than mph or km/h.
A nautical mile is slightly longer than a standard mile, which is why a speed in knots is always a bit lower than the same speed would look in mph. Pilots and air traffic control use knots for airspeed, and for wind speed too, because it ties neatly back to the nautical mile used in charts and navigation the world over — a shared unit that keeps flying and sailing speaking the same language.
It's a small piece of jargon, but it's one every pilot uses constantly, right alongside the other figures covered in how fast planes actually fly. It's also exactly the sort of detail that belongs on a pilot mug — the small, everyday object that quietly says this person speaks the language too.
Written by Craig Fearn, Aviation Gift Co.