flight airspeed record

File:Flight airspeed records over time.svg

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

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird holds the official Air Speed Record for a crewed airbreathing jet engine aircraft with a speed of {{cvt|3530|km/h|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.{{cite web|url= http://records.fai.org/general_aviation/current.asp?id1=21&id2=4|title=Current air speed record|access-date=18 October 2006|url-status= dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927002329/http://records.fai.org/general_aviation/current.asp?id1=21&id2=4|archive-date=27 September 2007|df=dmy-all}} SR-71 pilot Brian Shul claimed in The Untouchables that he flew in excess of Mach 3.5 on 15 April 1986, over Libya, in order to avoid a missile.{{cite book|last=Shul|first=Brian|title=The Untouchables|year=1994|publisher=Mach One|isbn=0929823125|page=173}}

Although 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 {{cvt|528.31|mph|disp=flip}}, the unofficial record for fastest piston-engined aeroplane in level flight is held by a British Hawker Sea Fury at {{cvt|547|mph|disp=flip}}. Both were demilitarised and modified fighters, while 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.{{Cite web |date=2016-03-06 |title=seafire {{!}} spitfire {{!}} 1953 {{!}} 1321 {{!}} Flight Archive |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1953/1953%20-%201321.html |access-date=2023-04-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306205558/http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1953/1953%20-%201321.html |archive-date=6 March 2016 }} 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 {{cvt|690|mph|disp=flip}} in a dive on 5 February 1952.

The last new speed record ratified before the outbreak of World War II was set on 26 April 1939 with a Me 209 V1, at {{cvt|755|km/h}}. The chaos and secrecy of World War II meant that new speed breakthroughs were neither publicized nor ratified. In October 1941, an unofficial speed record of {{cvt|1004|km/h}} was secretly set by a Messerschmitt Me 163A "V4" rocket aircraft. Continued research during the war extended the secret, unofficial speed record to {{cvt|1130|km/h}} 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 {{cvt|606|mph|disp=flip}}. The first aircraft to exceed the unofficial October 1941 record of the Me 163A V4 was the Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, which achieved {{cvt|641|mph|disp=flip}} 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 {{cvt|891|mph|disp=flip}}.

The official speed record for a seaplane moved by piston engine is {{cvt|709.209|km/h}}, which attained on 24 October 1934, by Francesco Agello in the Macchi-Castoldi M.C.72 seaplane ("idrocorsa") and it remains the current record.{{cite web|url=http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/archiviovetrine_news/Pagine/Agelloprimatovelocita.aspx|title=Agello Airspeed record, Air Force portal|access-date=31 August 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304033802/http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/archiviovetrine_news/Pagine/Agelloprimatovelocita.aspx|archive-date=4 March 2016|df=dmy-all}} It was equipped with the Fiat AS.6 engine (version 1934) developing a power of {{cvt|3100|hp|kW|order=flip}} at 3,300 rpm, with coaxial counter-rotating propellers. The original record holding Macchi-Castoldi M.C.72 MM.181 seaplane is at the Air Force Museum at Vigna di Valle in Italy.

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.flyingmag.com/technique/proficiency/any-pilot-can-set-speed-record |title=Any Pilot Can Set a Speed Record|work=Flying Magazine |date=30 September 2015 |access-date=4 October 2015 }}"[http://www.fai.org/fai-record-file/?recordId=17439 FAI Record ID #17439 - Albuquerque - Amarillo, C-1b (Landplanes: take off weight 500 to 1000 kg)]{{Dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}" FAI Record date 8 April 2015. Accessed: 4 October 2015.[https://naa.aero/applications-downloads/records-downloads Records Downloads], NAA.

• 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

{{Reflist}}

• Allward, Maurice. Modern Combat Aircraft 4: F-86 Sabre. London: Ian Allan, 1978. {{ISBN|0-7110-0860-4}}.
• Andrews, C.F. and E.B. Morgan. Supermarine Aircraft since 1914. London:Putnam, 1987. {{ISBN|0-85177-800-3}}.
• Belyakov, R.A. and J. Marmain. MiG: Fifty Years of Secret Aircraft Design. Shrewsbury, UK:Airlife, 1994. {{ISBN|1-85310-488-4}}.
• Bowers, Peter M. Curtiss Aircraft 1907–1947. London:Putnam, 1979. {{ISBN|0-370-10029-8}}.
• Cooper, H.J. [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1951/1951%20-%200986.html "The World's Speed Record"]. Flight, 25 May 1951, pp. 617–619.
• [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1924/1924%20-%200073.html?tracked=1 "Eighteen Years of World's Records"]. Flight, 7 February 1924, pp. 73–75.
• Francillon, René J. McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920. London:Putnam, 1979. {{ISBN|0-370-00050-1}}.
• James, Derek N. Gloster Aircraft since 1917. London:Putnam, 1971. {{ISBN|0-370-00084-6}}.
• Mason, Francis K. The British Fighter since 1912. Annapolis Maryland, US: Naval Institute Press, 1992. {{ISBN|1-55750-082-7}}.
• Munson, Kenneth and John William Ransom Taylor Jane's Pocket Book of Record-breaking Aircraft. New York New York, US: Macmillan, 1978. {{ISBN|0-02-080630-2}}.
• Taylor, H. A. Fairey Aircraft since 1915. London:Putnam, 1974. {{ISBN|0-370-00065-X}}.
• Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1965–66. London:Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1965.
• Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1976–77. London:Jane's Yearbooks, 1976. {{ISBN|0-354-00538-3}}.
• Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1988–89. Coulsdon, UK:Jane's Defence Data, 1988. {{ISBN|0-7106-0867-5}}.
• Organ, Richard Avro Arrow: The Story of the Avro Arrow From Its Evolution To Its Extinction. Erin, ON, Canada: Boston Mills Press, 1980. {{ISBN|978-1550460476}}.

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061206205339/http://records.fai.org/general_aviation/ Web site] of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303203339/http://speedrecordclub.com/outair.php Speed records time line]
• [http://speedrecordclub.com/ Speed Record Club] - 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.
• [http://www.groundspeedrecords.com Ground Speed Records] - Breakdown of speed records by aircraft type

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