We take a look at the ten fastest planes ever flown. Though some uncrewed aircraft (like the X-43) have flown faster, they somehow fail to stir the imagination in the way an aircraft carrying a pilot does, so we will look at true crewed aircraft only. We have given the speed in mph and Mach.
Mach is a measure of speed relative to local conditions; at sea level sound travels at around 760mph, (so, at sea level Mach 1 is around 760 mph) as you get higher the air gets thinner and sound is slower. Let’s meet the 10 fastest planes…
The MiG-31 has two turbofan engines, which when deploying afterburner (fuel burnt towards the rear of the engine to increase thrust) have a combined thrust of 68,000 lb ft (equivalent to 304kN). The engine is the Soloviev D-30. The MiG-31 first flew in 1975 and entered service in 1981.
Other than the two ancient, and barely flyable, MiG-25s in Syria, the MiG-31 is the fastest (known) crewed aircraft flying anywhere in the world in 2024. Though capable of Mach 2.83, the MiG-31 is limited to Mach 1.5 in peacetime to preserve engine and airframe life.
The Ye-150 series were wildly-high-performance heavy interceptors. They could out-drag and out-climb any fighter in the world, and they also looked exceptionally mean. Despite taking its first flight as long ago as 1959, the Ye-150 could reach an astonishing Mach 2.65 (some sources claim even higher speeds of Mach 2.85, or 3030 km/h) and could ascend to altitudes above 69,000 feet (21,031m).
The series of four experimental fighter-prototypes was built in an effort to create a new, highly automated fighter to defend the Soviet Union against a proliferating Western threat (including supersonic bombers like the B-58, then in development). To catch and destroy these fast, high-flying intruders, the interceptor was to be automatically steered under the guidance of ground radars before engaging its own cutting-edge detection and weapons systems.
The F-111 bomber was the result of a failed project to build a fighter-bomber capable of serving both the United States Air Force and Navy as both a fighter-interceptor and a fast bomber. The naval fighter version for aircraft carriers, the F-111B, proved too heavy and sluggish to serve and was cancelled in favour of the F-14 Tomcat.
Open any aircraft reference book or website and you’ll read that the F-111 had a top speed somewhere between Mach 2.2 and Mach 2.5. But when the Hush-Kit site spoke to F-111 pilots and navigators he found that this official number is rather modest. Aardvark Weapon System Officer Jim Rotramel noted, “There was NO specified maximum speed.”
Until the late 1950s everyone knew that each successive generation of bombers was faster and higher flying than the last. They had to be, as the fighters tasked with blowing them out of the sky were getting ever faster and higher flying. The next step was Mach 3, three times the speed of sound – or around 2000 mph, at 75,000ft.
The resultant aircraft was arguably the most impressive machine that ever flew: a sleek 56-metre-long white dart with a delta wing with outer sections that folded down by 65 degrees during high-speed flight. Despite its beauty, the B-70 fleet was designed to annihilate hundreds of thousands of civilians or highly protected nuclear missile silos with free-fall nuclear bombs.
In 1947, the Bell X-1 broke the sound barrier, and a mere eight years later the X-2 was going three times faster, and was the very first aircraft to go faster than Mach 3. It was rocket-powered, with a swept-wing. It was launched from beneath a Boeing B-50 mothership.
The project started as early as 1945, with the Bell Aircraft Corporation, the United States Army Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) teaming up to study the aerodynamic issues of extremely fast and high flying.
The Mikoyan MiG-25 was a 1960s Soviet aircraft conceived with several roles in mind. It needed to be fast enough to catch the US A-5 and (later cancelled) XB-70 bombers, as well as perform the reconnaissance and recce-nuclear-bomber role. For these roles, it was intended to rely on high speed and high altitudes to succeed.
Whereas the US SR-71 Blackbird relied on exotic technology, fuel, engines and materials to reach high speeds, the Soviet Union used a largely stainless steel construction to withstand the huge aircraft skin temperatures and very large engines. This simple solution was far cheaper but meant it was slower and couldn’t achieve tri-sonic speed for very long.
Produced in huge secrecy, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was a technological marvel that seemingly arrived from space. The sleek alien looks of the SR-71 were utterly appropriate for a machine many years ahead of its time. The Blackbird was penned by the great aircraft designer Kelly Johnson, in Lockheed’s legendary Skunk Works advanced projects department.
The SR-71 could travel over 33 miles every minute. Key to the Blackbird’s high speed were its unusual engines and their relationship with their inlet shock, its special fuel, the aircraft’s low drag shape and sharp wing sweep, its use of titanium, and its cooling systems.
The swiftest fighter aircraft ever created, the Lockheed YF-12 was a prototype for an advanced United States Air Force interceptor able to fly incredibly fast, with a belly full of ultra-long range AIM-47 air-to-air missiles to knock out Soviet bomber threatening the United States.
Though this sounds formidable, there were several flaws with the concept, one being that the YF-12 with its many exotic features, could not be quickly scrambled. It took much too long to prepare the aircraft for flight, a bad quality in an aircraft intended to intercept enemy bombers at a moment’s notice.
At 30 metres, the A-12 was very long for a single-seat aircraft. It was designed for prolonged flight at Mach 3, so required titanium in its construction to survive a skin temperature reaching between 300 and 400 degrees. Such high-speed flight was enough to lengthen the aircraft, and it would only contract again was cool.
Though its maximum speed is often stated as Mach 3.35, it is likely that the A-12 was capable of even faster speeds with Mach 3.6 very possible. It flew operational missions for a short time before being replaced by the twin-seat and considerably more capable SR-71 Blackbird.
The record for the fastest speed for a crewed aircraft has stood for an astonishing 57 years. The North American X-15 was a research aircraft built to explore extremes of speed and altitude. The X-15 reached an astonishing 4,519mph
Heat resistance came from the use of heat-resistant nickel alloy (Inconel-X 750). Earlier flights used the XLR11 rocket engine which used ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen. The majority of flights (175 of 199) used the XLR99 which employed anhydrous ammonia and liquid oxygen as propellant.
