Flight airspeed record

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The SR-71 Blackbird is the current record holder.
The SR-71 Blackbird is the current record holder.

An air speed record is the highest speed attained by an aircraft of a particular class.

The rules for all official aviation records are defined by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), and they also ratify any claims. Speed records are divided into multiple classes with sub-divisions. There are three classes of aircraft: landplanes, seaplanes and amphibians; then within these classes, there are records for aircraft in several mass bands. There are still further sub-divisions 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. There are still further records for the speed between specified cities such as London to New York.

Contents

[edit] FAI classes

Class Category
A Free Balloons
B Airships
C Aeroplanes
D Gliders & Motorgliders
E Rotorcraft
F Model aircraft - RC, CL, & FF types
G Parachuting
H Vertical Take-off and Landing aeroplanes
I Human-powered aircraft
K Spacecraft
M Tilt-wing / Tilt-engine aircraft
N Short Take-off and Landing aeroplanes
O Hang gliding & Paragliding
P Aerospacecraft
R Microlight
S Space Models
U Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

[edit] Timeline

Year Pilot Airspeed Aircraft Location
mph km/h
1903 Wilbur Wright 9.80 15.77 Wright Flyer Kitty Hawk, USA
1905 Wilbur Wright 37.85 60.91 Wright Flyer III
1908 Henry Farman 40.26 64.79 Voisin biplane
1909 Louis Blériot 47.82 76.96 Blériot XII
1910 Alfred Leblanc 68.20 109.8 Blériot XI
1911 Edouard Nieuport 82.73 133.1 Nieuport Nie-2 N
1912 Jules Vedrines 108.2 174.1 Monocoque Deperdussin
1913 Maurice Prevost 126.7 203.8 Monocoque Deperdussin
1914 Norman Spratt 134.5 216.5 RAF SE.4
1918 Roland Rohlfs 163.1 262.4 Curtiss Wasp
1919 Joseph Sadi-Lecointe 191.1 307.5 Nieuport-Delage 29v
1920 Joseph Sadi-Lecointe 194.5 313.0 Nieuport-Delage 29v
1921 Joseph Sadi-Lecointe 205.2 330.3 Nieuport-Delage
1922 Billy Mitchell 224.3 360.9 Curtiss R-6
1923 Alford J. Williams 267.2 430.0 Curtiss R2C-1
1924 Florentin Bonnet 278.5 448.2 Bernard Ferbois V2
1927 Mario de Bernardi 297.8 479.3 Macchi M.52
1928 Mario de Bernardi 318.6 512.7 Macchi M.52bis
1929 Giuseppe Motta 362.0 582.6 Macchi M.67
1931 George H. Stainforth 407.5 655.8 Supermarine S.6B seaplane Lee-on-the-Solent, UK
1933 Francesco Agello 424 682 Macchi M.C.72
1934 Francesco Agello 440.6 709.0 Macchi M.C.72
1939 Fritz Wendel 469.22 755.13 Me 209 Augsburg
1941 Heini Dittmar 623.65 1003.67 Messerschmitt Me 163 AV4 Peenemünde[1][2][3]
1944 Heinz Herlitzius 624 1004 Messerschmitt Me 262 S2 Leipheim [4]
1944 Heini Dittmar 702 1130 Messerschmitt Me 163 BV18 Lagerlechfeld [5]
1945 H. J. Wilson 606.4 975.9 Gloster Meteor F Mk4 Herne Bay, UK
1946 Edward Donaldson 615.78 990.79 Gloster Meteor F Mk4 Littlehampton, UK
1947 Col. Andrew Boyd 623.74 1,003.60 Lockheed P-80R Shooting Star Muroc, California, USA
1947 Chuck Yeager 670.0 1078 Bell X-1
1948 Maj. Richard L. Johnson, USAF 670.84 1079.6 North American F-86A-3 Sabre Cleveland, USA[6]
1953 Neville Duke 727.6 1,171 Hawker Hunter F Mk3 Littlehampton, UK
1953 Mike Lithgow 735.7 1,184 Supermarine Swift F4 Castel Idris, Tripoli, Libya
From this point records are set at altitude and not sea level.
1955 Horace A. Hanes 822.1 1,323 F-100C Super Sabre Palmdale, USA
1956 Peter Twiss 1,132 1,822 Fairey Delta 2 Chichester, UK
1959 Col. Georgii Mosolov 1,484 2,388 Ye-66 (proto MiG-21)
1961 US Navy 1606.3 2585.1 Modified F-4 Phantom
1965 Robert L. Stephens
and Daniel Andre		 2,070 3,332 Lockheed YF-12A Edwards AFB, USA
1976 Eldon W. Joersz 2,194 3,530 SR-71 Blackbird Beale AFB, USA

[edit] Official records versus unofficial

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird holds the official Air Speed Record for a manned airbreathing jet aircraft with a speed of 3,529.56 km/h (2,194 mph). It was capable of taking off and landing unassisted on conventional runways. The record was set on 28 July 1976 by Eldon W. Joersz near Beale Air Force Base, California, USA.[7]

For a period of time, during and immediately following World War II, the unpublicised and unofficial speed record of 1004.5 km/h (623.8 mph) set by the Messerschmitt Me 163AV4(the third prototype) rocket aircraft, on October 2, 1941 was actually the fastest velocity any aircraft had been measured as traveling to that time. That figure, set during wartime when no records were being ratified, was achieved by the Me 163A V4 at altitude rather than sea-level as it had been towed by a Bf 110 to set the record. Many record attempts were stated as being "set" after World War II by such aircraft as the Gloster Meteor, which exceeded the 755 km/h (469 mph) velocity record of the pre-war holder (the Messerschmitt Me 209 V1 piston engined aircraft) but the first to actually exceed the Me 163 A V4 claim was the Douglas Skystreak on August 20, 1947.

The very fastest manned atmospheric vehicle of all time was the Apollo command module as it returned from the moon, reaching speeds of around Mach 30. Although it used the air largely as a brake, it did also achieve a lift to drag ratio of around 0.368[8] which was used to control the flight trajectory. However this is probably very different from most people's idea of an 'aircraft', and a L/D ratio of 1 or above is arguably the borderline of what may be considered flying.

[edit] Other air speed records

Year Pilot Airspeed Aircraft Comments
mph km/h
1955 Hank Baird 623 1,003 Republic XF-84H Propeller driven plane record
1967 'Pete' Knight 4,510 7,258 North American X-15 rocket plane; incapable of breathing air
1981-present several 17,500 28,000 Space Shuttle Speed during re-entry
11 August 1986 John Egginton 249.1 401.0 Westland Lynx 800 G-LYNX helicopter world speed record
August 21, 1989 Lyle Shelton 528.33 850.26 Grumman F8F Bearcat Rare Bear Fastest straight-line piston-engined aircraft - 528.33mph
December 22, 2006 Klaus Ohlmann & Matias Garcia Mazzaro 190.6 306.8 Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-4DM Over 500km. Fastest speed in any of FAI's gliding records
November 16, 2004 unmanned 7,000 11,270 Boeing X-43A air-launched hypersonic scramjet

[edit] See also


[edit] References

  1. ^ Ferdinand C.W. Käsmann, Die schnellsten Jets der Welt p.122 ISBN 3-925505-26-1 1994
  2. ^ Heini Dittmar
  3. ^ Wolfgang Späte, Der streng geheime Vogel Me 163 p.32,33 ISBN 3-895-55142-2 1983
  4. ^ Ferdinand C.W. Käsmann Die schnellsten Jets der Welt p.122 ISBN 3-925505-26-1 1994
  5. ^ Ferdinand C.W. Käsmann Die schnellsten Jets der Welt p.122 ISBN 3-925505-26-1 1994
  6. ^ Jackson, Robert (1994). F-86 Sabre: The Operational Record. Smithsonian Institution Press. 
  7. ^ Current air speed record. Retrieved on 2006-10-18.
  8. ^ Hillje, Ernest R., "Entry Aerodynamics at Lunar Return Conditions Obtained from the Flight of Apollo 4 (AS-501)," NASA TN D-5399, (1969).

[edit] External links

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