Piston Engines
The more "traditional" class of propeller-driven aircraft are those powered by piston engines, which include nearly all aircraft from the Wright brothers up through World War II. Today piston engines are used almost exclusively on light, general aviation aircraft. The official speed record for a piston plane is held by a modified Grumman F8F Bearcat, the Rare Bear, with a speed of 850.24 km/h (528.31 mph) on 21 August 1989 at Las Vegas, New Mexico, United States of America.
The FAI record for the fastest piston-powered aircraft over a long-distance circuit is the 2000-km record of 720.13 km/h (447.47 mph) set on 22 May 1948 by Jacqueline Cochran in a P-51C. (She also holds the 100-km record of 755.67 km/hr, set in December 1947.) Higher speed records exist; some are unofficial and some were officially-timed one-way trips aided by tailwinds. Examples of the latter: a B-29 averaged 725 km/hr from Burbank to Floyd Bennett Field (3957 km in 5.455 hours) on 11 December 1945, and Joe DeBona averaged 904 km/hr from Los Angeles LAX to New York Idlewild (3981 km in 4.405 hours) in a P-51 on 30 March 1954.
Read more about this topic: Fastest Propeller-driven Aircraft
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