Aircraft & Spaceflight:
Speeds, Designs and History

Aircraft and spacecraft profiles, speed comparisons, flight science, news and original projects by Sean.

Saturn V × Concorde · Photo composite

Aviation & Space News

The latest aviation and space stories from Fastest Planes.

Oct 22, 2026

BepiColombo Turns Eight in Space, Prepares for Mercury Orbit

The ESA–JAXA mission marks eight years in space. Mercury orbit entry is planned for November 21, with Mio separation in December.

Oct 19, 2026

CRS-35 Dragon Delivers Solar Arrays as ISS Crew Starts New Experiments

NASA’s October 16 update confirms CRS-35 unloading and experiment preparation. Its two new solar arrays await installation spacewalks.

Oct 19, 2026

U.S. Navy Receives First C-130J-30 for E-130J Conversion

The first C-130J-30 for the E-130J program was delivered on October 15. Northrop Grumman will convert it for the Navy’s TACAMO mission.

Sep 6, 2026

A WB-57F Chases the Eclipse Above the North Atlantic

NASA flew near 50,000 feet during the August 12 eclipse to reduce atmospheric interference in observations of the Sun's corona.

Which aircraft is fastest?

Start with the category: propulsion, crew and mission determine what can be compared.

Uncrewed air-breathing research aircraft

Mach 9.6

Reported air-breathing speed-record flight.

2004-11-16 · Read the source context

Crewed rocket research aircraft

Mach 6.7

A rocket-powered flight-test result; a different mission from a jet aircraft.

1967-10-03 · Read the source context

Crewed reconnaissance jet

SR-71

Explore the SR-71’s category record and published performance.

1976-07-28 · Read the source context

From the Sound Barrier to the Sun

Where aircraft records end, spaceflight takes over — the fastest machines people have built, step by step.

Aviation · inside the atmosphere
  1. 1947Mach 1.06≈ 1,127 km/hBell X-1First crewed aircraft past the speed of sound
  2. 1976Mach 3.33,530 km/hSR-71 BlackbirdFastest crewed air-breathing jet
  3. 1967Mach 6.77,274 km/hX-15Fastest crewed aircraft ever flown
Spaceflight · above ~100 km
  1. 198128,000km/hSpace ShuttleOrbital velocity in low Earth orbit
  2. 196939,897km/hApollo 10Fastest speed humans have ever travelled
  3. 2024692,000km/hParker Solar ProbeFastest object humans have ever built
The Parker Solar Probe moves more than 600 times faster than the Bell X-1 did when it first broke the sound barrier.
Explore all rockets & spacecraft

Compare, calculate, explore

Choose a question and investigate it with the sources in view.

Compare two aircraftSave and share aircraft, units and evidence basisMach & air temperatureTest a temperature or standard-atmosphere altitudeLearning activitiesPrintable worksheet and five-question quizAircraft dataDownload CSV or JSON with provenance

Fighter Aircraft

The world’s most advanced air superiority and multirole combat platforms

F-22 Raptor 5th-generation stealth air superiority fighter in flight

F-22 Raptor

Mach 2.25

5th-generation stealth fighter. Supercruise. Designed for air superiority.

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F-15 Eagle twin-engine air superiority fighter jet

F-15 Eagle

Mach 2.5

Twin-engine fighter developed for air superiority.

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F-14 Tomcat variable-sweep wing carrier-based fighter

F-14 Tomcat

Mach 2.34

Variable-sweep wings. Phoenix missiles. Top Gun legend.

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F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole combat fighter aircraft

F-16 Falcon

Mach 2.0

Single-engine multirole fighter used internationally.

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View All Fighter Aircraft

Made by Sean

From reading about aircraft to making things: drawings, models, games and code.

Sean’s hand-drawn F-15EX II

Drawings and models

Explore Sean’s aircraft drawings and scale models.

Sean’s ManuverTrails Kerbal Space Program project

Kerbal Space Program

KSP mods and the process of building them.

SkyStrike V9.0 Alpha gameplay: aircraft launching from an aircraft carrier

SkyStrike

Try Sean’s browser flight game in the current V9.0 Alpha beta channel.

Experimental & Hypersonic

Atmospheric flight milestones from Mach 3 to Mach 9.6

NASA X-43A scramjet-powered hypersonic experimental aircraft

X-43A

Mach 9.6

Air-breathing aircraft speed record. Scramjet-powered.

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North American X-15 rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft

X-15

Mach 6.7

Crewed rocket-plane speed record. Reached the edge of space.

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Boeing X-51 Waverider scramjet hypersonic flight test vehicle

X-51 Waverider

Mach 5.1

Landmark Mach 5.1 scramjet test. Rides its own shockwave.

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Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3.3 supersonic reconnaissance aircraft

SR-71 Blackbird

Mach 3.3

No SR-71 was shot down by enemy action. A record-setting air-breathing crewed aircraft.

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Rockets & Spacecraft

From Saturn V to Starship — the encyclopedia leaves the atmosphere

Saturn V

Saturn V

34.5 MN thrust

NASA's 110.6 m Moon rocket launched every Apollo lunar mission and Skylab, sending 140,000…

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Starship

Starship

V3 flight testing

SpaceX’s two-stage launch system is designed for full reuse. V3 flight tests assess deployment,…

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International Space Station (ISS)

International Space Station (ISS)

28,000 km/h

A 420-tonne laboratory the size of a football field, orbiting at 28,000 km/h and…

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Parker Solar Probe

Parker Solar Probe

692,000 km/h

The fastest human-made object ever: NASA's Sun-skimming probe hit 692,000 km/h in December 2024,…

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Stealth Aircraft

How aircraft reduce their detectability across different sensors

F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft with faceted design

F-117 Nighthawk

Subsonic

The world’s first operational stealth aircraft. Faceted design.

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B-2 Spirit stealth strategic bomber flying wing

B-2 Spirit

Subsonic

$2.1 billion flying wing. Global strike capability. Only 21 built.

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B-21 Raider next-generation stealth strategic bomber

B-21 Raider

Classified

Next-generation strategic bomber. AI-enabled.

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F-22 Raptor 5th-generation stealth air superiority fighter in flight

F-22 Raptor

Mach 2.25

All-aspect stealth combined with supercruise.

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Strategic Bombers

Supersonic bombers designed to strike targets across continents

North American XB-70 Valkyrie Mach 3 experimental supersonic bomber

XB-70 Valkyrie

Mach 3.08

Compression lift pioneer. Six engines.

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Rockwell B-1 Lancer variable-sweep wing supersonic strategic bomber

B-1 Lancer

Mach 1.25

“The Bone.” Variable-sweep wings. 75,000 lb payload.

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Convair B-58 Hustler Mach 2 supersonic strategic bomber

B-58 Hustler

Mach 2.0

First supersonic bomber. 19 world records.

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Tupolev Tu-160 White Swan supersonic strategic bomber

Tu-160 White Swan

2,200 km/h

Rostec’s April 2020 Tu-160 specification; modernized Tu-160M figures have separate conditions.

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Supersonic Airliners

When civilians flew faster than sound

Concorde Mach 2 supersonic passenger airliner by Aerospatiale-BAC

Concorde

Mach 2.04

27 years of supersonic service. New York to London in 3.5 hours.

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Tupolev Tu-144 Soviet supersonic passenger transport aircraft

Tu-144

Mach 2.15 cruise

Tu-144D maximum cruise at 59,000 ft. The family prototype first flew in 1968.

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Knowledge Updates

Checked September 8, 2026 · Flight science with sources

Why Mach 1 Is Not One Fixed Speed

Temperature, true airspeed and the difference between a specification and a record.

Read the updated guide

Sonic Booms and X-59’s Next Test

How shock waves reach the ground, and why achieving Mach 1.4 does not finish acoustic validation.

Explore the science

Explore More

Discover more about supersonic aviation and spaceflight

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