List of flight airspeed records

An air speed record is the highest airspeed attained by an aircraft of a particular class. The rules for all official aviation records are defined by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which also ratifies any claims. Speed records are divided into a number of classes with sub-divisions. There are three classes of aircraft: landplanes, seaplanes, and amphibians, and within these classes there are records for aircraft in a number of weight categories. There are still further subdivisions for piston-engined, turbojet, turboprop, and rocket-engined aircraft. Within each of these groups, records are defined for speed over a straight course and for closed circuits of various sizes carrying various payloads.

Timeline

Gray text indicates unofficial records, including unconfirmed or unpublicized war secrets.

Official records versus unofficial

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird holds the official air speed record for a crewed airbreathing jet engine aircraft with a speed of 3,529.6 km/h (2,193.2 mph). The record was set on 28 July 1976 by Eldon W. Joersz and George T. Morgan Jr. near Beale Air Force Base, California, USA. It was able to take off and land unassisted on conventional runways. SR-71 pilot Brian Shul claimed in The Untouchables that he flew faster than Mach 3.5 on 15 April 1986, over Libya, in order to avoid a missile.

The official record for fastest piston-engined aeroplane in level flight was held by a Grumman F8F Bearcat, the Rare Bear, with a speed of 850.23 km/h (528.31 mph). The unofficial record is held by a British Hawker Sea Fury at 880 km/h (547 mph). Both were demilitarised and modified fighters. The fastest stock (original, factory-built) piston-engined aeroplane was unofficially the Supermarine Spiteful F Mk 16, which "achieved a speed of 494m.p.h. at 28,500ft during official tests at Boscombe Down" in level flight. The unofficial record for fastest piston-engined aeroplane (not in level flight) is held by a Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XIX flown by Flight Lieutenant Edward "Ted" Powles, which was calculated to have achieved a speed of 1,110 km/h (690 mph) in a dive on 5 February 1952.

The last new speed record ratified before World War II was set on 26 April 1939 with a Me 209 V1, at 755 km/h (469 mph). The chaos and secrecy of the war meant that new speed breakthroughs were neither publicized nor ratified. In October 1941, an unofficial speed record of 1,004 km/h (624 mph) was secretly set by a Messerschmitt Me 163A "V4" rocket aircraft. Continued research during the war extended the secret, unofficial speed record to 1,130 km/h (700 mph) by July 1944, achieved by a Messerschmitt Me 163B "V18". The first new official record in the post-war period was achieved by a Gloster Meteor F Mk.4 in November 1945, at 975 km/h (606 mph). The first aircraft to exceed the unofficial October 1941 record of the Me 163A V4 was the Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, which achieved 1,032 km/h (641 mph) in August 1947. The July 1944 unofficial record of the Me 163B V18 was officially surpassed in November 1947, when Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X-1 to 1,434 km/h (891 mph).

The official speed record for a seaplane powered by a piston engine is 709.209 km/h (440.682 mph), which was attained on 24 October 1934, by Francesco Agello in the Macchi-Castoldi M.C.72 seaplane ("idrocorsa") and it remains the current record. It was equipped with the Fiat AS.6 engine (version 1934) developing a power of 2,300 kW (3,100 hp) at 3,300 rpm, with coaxial counter-rotating propellers. The original record holding aircraft is on display at the Italian Air Force Museum, located on the former Vigna di Valle Air Base[it] in Bracciano near Rome.

Other air speed records

Flying between any two airports allow a large number of combinations, so setting a speed record ("speed over a recognised course") is fairly easy with an ordinary aircraft, although there are many administrative requirements for recognition.

See also

• Flight altitude record
• Fastest propeller-driven aircraft
• List of vehicle speed records
• Lockheed X-7 - Mach 4.31 (2,881 mph) in the 1950s
• Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet
• World record

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External links

• of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)
• - The Speed Record Club seeks to promote an informed and educated enthusiast identity, reporting accurately and impartially to the best of its ability on record-breaking engineering, events, attempts and history.
• - Breakdown of speed records by aircraft type