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 3,530 km/h (2,193 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 and George T. Morgan Jr. near Beale Air Force Base, California, US
Although the official record for fastest piston-engined aeroplane in level flight is held by a Grumman F8F Bearcat, the Rare Bear, with a speed of 528.31 mph (850.24 km/h), the unofficial record for fastest piston-engined aeroplane in level flight is a held by a British Hawker Sea Fury at 547 mph (880 km/h). Whereas these were both demilitarised, modified fighters, the fastest piston-engined aeroplane in stock (original, factory-built) condition was the German Dornier Do 335 Pfeil, with a maximum speed of 474 mph (765 km/h) in level flight. The unofficial record for fastest piston-engined aeroplane (not in level flight) is held by a Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXX, which was calculated to have achieved a speed of 690 mph (1,110 km/h, Mach 0.96) in a dive on 5 February 1952.
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 2 October 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 20 August 1947.
The 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 which was used to control the flight trajectory. However this is probably very different from most people's idea of an 'aircraft'.
Read more about this topic: Flight Airspeed Record
Famous quotes containing the words official and/or records:
“Our medieval historians who prefer to rely as much as possible on official documents because the chronicles are unreliable, fall thereby into an occasionally dangerous error. The documents tell us little about the difference in tone which separates us from those times; they let us forget the fervent pathos of medieval life.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)