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The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is the current record-holder for a crewed airbreathing jet aircraft. 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), [ 1 ] which also ratifies any claims.
The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft.
The SR-71 was the world's fastest and highest-flying air-breathing operational manned aircraft throughout its career and it still holds that record. On 28 July 1976, SR-71 serial number 61-7962, piloted by then Captain Robert Helt, broke the world record: an "absolute altitude record" of 85,069 feet (25,929 m).
Aircraft speed records are based on true airspeed, rather than ground speed. HTV-2 (artist rendering), the fastest uncrewed aerial vehicle North American X-15 , the fastest piloted rocket-powered aircraft
It set several airspeed records for jet aircraft. The X-43 is the fastest jet-powered aircraft on record at approximately Mach 9.6. [2] A winged booster rocket with the X-43 placed on top, called a "stack", was drop launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.
British inventor Richard Browning broke the record for fastest speed in a body-controlled jet engine powered suit on Nov. 14.
The X-15 program data was used in the planning of future aircraft and spacecraft designs. Flight 188 held the crewed winged spaceplane speed record till it was passed by STS-1 of the Space Shuttle Columbia on April 14, 1981. Flight 188 is still a speed record for a non-orbital aircraft in the atmosphere under a powered manned flight.
The fastest airbreathing jet aircraft is the unmanned X-43 scramjet at around Mach 9–10. The fastest manned (rocket) aircraft is the X-15 at Mach 6.85. The Space Shuttle, while far faster than the X-43 or X-15, was not regarded as an aircraft during ascent as it was carried ballistically by rocket thrust, rather than the air. During re-entry ...