Since the invention of the first airplane, engineers have tried to push the limits of speed. What were the fastest aircraft two decades ago, look like snails compared to the aircraft of today. But which are the fastest?
When the jet engine was invented during WWII, fighter jets and later commercial airliners became far faster than they ever had been. As jet engine technology progressed, so did top speeds, up until today and beyond!
17. Concorde (Mach 2.04)
The Concorde was one of the biggest achievements of the Cold War. In the West, the Concorde is known for being the fastest successful commercial aircraft to have ever flown.
Both BAC and Aerospatiale marketed the Concorde base solely on its speed. You could travel from London to New York and back and still be home in time for dinner!
When you flew on Concorde, you could literally see the curvature of the Earth! However, because of the sonic boom it made, the Concorde was confined to transatlantic routes only, which made it somewhat of a commercial failure.
16. General Dynamics F-16 (Mach 2.05)
The F-16 is one of the most produced fighter jets of recent years. One of the major selling points of the F-16 is that it is one of the fastest aircraft on the market (for a fighter of its age).
Most of the aircraft that will one day replace the F-16, such as the F-35 and F-22, are vastly slower than the F-16. During the 1950/60/70’s the Americans, British, French and Soviets were all designing aircraft that pushed the limits of speed.
Following what the US military wanted, General Dynamics designed an aircraft that fitted that. This aircraft later went ton to become the F-16, a jet that is used in 27 air forces from different countries.
15. Tupolev Tu-160 (Mach 2.05)
Seeing the success of the B-1 in America, the Soviets too designed their own supersonic, high altitude bomber. Using technology that Tupolev designed for the Tu-144, the Tu-160 was soon entered into the Soviet Air Force’s fleet.
Because the Tu-160 was designed using technology for a supersonic airliner, the Tu-160 was designed to also fly at supersonic speeds. However, the Tu-160 was designed to have a greater range than the Tu-144, as such, the speed was reduced.
Just as with the B-1, the Tu-160 is still in service with the Russian Air Force. Unlike the B-1, however, which is slowly being withdrawn from service, the Tu-160 has no replacement and will continue to be used for the foreseeable future.
14. Bell X-1 (Mach 2.21)
The Bell X-1 is perhaps the most significant aircraft since the Wright Flyer. It may not be the fastest aircraft on this list, but without the X-1, none of the other aircraft on this list would exist!
In 1946, Chuck Yeager became one of the most famous aviators to have ever lived, all thanks to the X-1. In 1946, the X-1 became the first aircraft to break the sound barrier and pass Mach 1.
However, the X-1 didn’t stop there. The X-1 also went on to go twice the speed of sound! The technology that made the X-1 go Mach 2.21 so fast was replicated and used in British and American aircraft in Korea, and later on by the Soviets.
13. Tupolev Tu-144 (Mach 2.29)
Nicknamed the “Concordski” by the media and avgeeks, the Tu-144 was the Soviet’s answer to Concorde and the Boeing 2707. Not only was it faster than Concorde, it also flew three months before Concorde did.
However, it is seldom remembered as the fastest commercial aircraft. That honor goes to Concorde. This is mostly down to the relative failure of the Tu-144, even more so than Concorde was!
With that being said, the Tu-144 is still remembered by many in the former Warsaw Pact as one of the fastest aircraft ever and the fastest commercial aircraft to have ever been flown on either side of the Iron Curtain.
12. Sukhoi Su-27 (Mach 2.35)
One of the former Warsaw Pact’s major naval aircraft, the Su-27 is similar to the F-16. At the same time that the US military and General Dynamics were working on the F-16, the Soviet military and Sukhoi were working on the Su-27.
Both Sukhoi and the Soviet military knew that whatever jet the Americans, British and French were developing separately, would be fast. As such, Sukhoi developed a jet that had speed in mind- a jet that raveled at Mach 2.35.
Partly thanks to the Su-27 being one of the fastest aircraft, the Su-27 is one of the most successful military aircraft ever. Thanks to its initial success, the Su-27 has been developed into several further aircraft, including the Su-37.
11. General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark (Mach 2.5)
The development of the F-111 has it origins in the downing of Gary Powers’ U-2 in 1960. The USAF realized that speed and stealth mattered just as much as weaponry did.
As a result, the US military contacted the various aircraft manufacturers in the US. The design from General dynamics, designed similarly to the B-1, caught the Air Force’s eye.
General Dynamics had used the latest engine technology to make the F-111 extremely fast, even by modern standards.What resulted was a fighter jet that was built almost 600 times for two different air forces and NASA, being retired in 2010.
10. McDonnell Douglas F-15 (Mach 2.5)
The F-15 is one of the US’s four premier fourth generation fighter jet (alongside the F-14, F-16 and F-18). McDonnell Douglas designed the F-15 to be the fastest fourth generation fighter in the USAF fleet.
As speed was a major concern, McDonnell Douglas had the best engine designers working on engines that pushed 1970’s technology. The result was the fastest fighter jet to ever see widespread use in the US Air Force fleet.
Partly due to its incredible speed as well as its durability and impressive weapons, the F-15 is one of the most produced and used aircraft on the planet. The F-15 is used by four air forces and NASA and has been produced 1200 times.
9. Mikoyan MiG-31 (Mach 2.83)
The amazing success of the extremely fast MiG-25 (more on that later), came the need for a rival to the aforementioned F-15. The result was that the newly formed Mikoyan developed the MiG-25 into the MiG-31.
However, Mikoyan also addressed a major problem of the MiG-25, it’s low range and service ceiling. By increasing the range and service ceiling dramatically, Mikoyan had to sacrifice speed.
Instead of the MiG-31 having a Mach 3.2 speed, the MiG-31 had a Mach 2.83 speed. It is generally agreed that the only reason Mikoyan developed the MiG-31 was to be a “Blackbird killer”. However, the USAF began to stopped using the SR-71 in favor of satellites.
8. North American XB-70 (Mach 3.1)
Originally, the XB-70 was meant to be the next high altitude bomber. It competed with what would become the Rockwell B-1. Oddly, the XB-70 was actually selected by the USAF to be next high altitude bomber.
As with most high altitude bombers, North American designed the XB-70 to go extremely fast. In fact, for its time, it was one of the fastest aircraft that could’ve been used.
With that being said however, after the downing of Gary Powers’ U-2, stealth became the main priority, not high altitude. As such, the more stealthy B-1 was chosen, and the XB-70 became a NASA test aircraft.
7. Bell X-2 (Mach 3.196)
Bell didn’t just stop with the X-1. During the 1950’s, the US military were designing new concepts for the future of military aircraft (which often led to very strange aircraft designs!)
The US military contacted Bell with a proposal: develop an aircraft that flew higher and faster than the Bell X-1 and the Douglas D-558 II. The hope was that the X-2 would reveal secrets of aerodynamics that would become staples of future fighter jets.
Despite the first use of the X-2 being devastating for Bell and the USAF, further modifications were made which resulted in the X-2 being a success. Combined with previously obtained information, the X-2 helped inspire the next generation of military fighters!
6. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (Mach 3.2)
During the height of the Cold War, at a time when the Americans were developing the F-14 and F-15, the Soviets were developing the MiG-25. As with the F-15, speed was the biggest priority.
The result was that the best Soviet engineers were put to the test. The best engineers in the entire Soviet union developed the best afterburners in history. The result was that the MiG-25 was one of the fastest aircraft ever built!
The MiG-25 was famous for being the only interceptor of its time that could intercept the SR-71. Thanks to its speed, and traveling at its service ceiling, one MiG-25 was able to almost shot down an SR-71.
5. Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (Mach 3.32)
The SR-71 is most commonly cited as being the fastest aircraft in the world. This mostly comes down to the fact that the SR-71 received a lot of publicity where the A-12, YF-12 and X-43 did not (mostly because those aircraft were classified).
Despite that, the SR-71 is still one of the fastest aircraft to have ever flown. The idea of the SR-71 came after the success of the Lockheed U-2. The US military needed an aircraft that could fly higher and faster than the U-2.
The result was the faster A-12, which was subsequently refined and re-engineered into the SR-71. This aircraft would become the USAF’s premier stealth and spy aircraft and was later used by NASA as a test aircraft.
4. Lockheed A-12 (Mach 3.35)
If the A-12 looks like the SR-71, there is a good reason for that. The A-12 was developed into the SR-71 that also became one of the fastest aircraft to have ever been built.
The reason that the SR-71 is a little bit slower than the A-12 is because of range. The SR-71 was given re-engineered engines which boosted the SR-71’s range, at the expense of Mach 0.03.
Just as with the YF-12 (more on that next), the A-12 entered service. Similarly to the SR-71, the A-12 was a high altitude stealth reconnaissance aircraft.
Unlike the SR-71, the A-12 wasn’t used by the USAF, rather, by the CIA, mainly over Korea, Vietnam and Cuba.
3. Lockheed YF-12 (Mach 3.35)
If the YF-12 looks similar to the A-12 and SR-71 to you, there is good reason for it. After all, the YF-12 is a variant of the A-12 (which was developed into the SR-71).
Originally, the YF-12 was meant to be an interceptor aircraft with some stealth technology incorporated. However, that was soon abandoned in favor of the all-stealth SR-71.
The pre-built YF-12s were later entered in to testing with the USAF but were abandoned and put into storage. The YF-12 was faster than the SR-71 for the same reason that the A-12 was- the YF-12 had a lower range than the SR-71 did, when range was the most important factor.
2. North American X-15 (Mach 6.7)
The X-15 was for the longest time considered the fastest aircraft on the planet. Many of the future Apollo astronauts actually flew in the X-15, before NASA had even begun. In fact, flying in an X-15 would earn you astronaut wings!
North American designed the X-15 to fly at 67 miles above sea level! At that height, NASA considers you an astronaut. At that height, the air is so thin (less dense than it is at sea level) that jet engines used another aircraft are hypersonic on the X-15!
Many in the USAF and also many avgeeks have referred to the X-15 as the “Flying rocket”. This is partly down to the X-15’s speed, but also the height it flies at, which technically makes the X-15 a rocket, not an airplane.
1. NASA X-43 (Mach 9.6)
By far the fastest aircraft to have been produced to date is the X-43. As you can probably imagine, the X-43 is also one of the most technologically advanced aircraft to have ever been produced.
The X-43 is so advanced that it is actually unmanned! The X-43’s mission is to obtain data for NASA about hypersonic travel. This data will go on to help NASA and rocket designers to design microchips, and later manned-rockets travel extremely long distances.
NASA hopes that one day, humanity will be able to travel to other solar systems using designs inspired by the X-43. However, those hopes are decades away (if not a century!)
Which is the fastest aircraft on the planet? Tell me in the comments!