Top Speed: 4520 mph
Max Flight Distance: 280 miles with internal fuel.
As Uploaded on PickyTop part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft, the North American X-15 was a hypersonic rocket-powered plane operated by USAF and NASA.
For the fastest manned plane, this rocket jet has the current world record. Its top speed was Mach 6.70 (about 7,200 kph) which is achieved with his pilot qualified as astronaut William J Chevalier on October 3, 1967.
It had to feature a big wedge tail to be stable at these super high altitudes, but the downside of this was at the lower altitude the drag from such a tail was enormous.
A B-52 had to carry it to an altitude of approximately 14,000 meters before leaving it at which it ignited its own engines.
Just imagine sitting in a 15m long rocket and then being released, it must have been an amazing thrill!
They used X-15 at such extreme speeds so it didn’t use traditional steering methods (using slide over a fin) but used rocket thrusters instead!
This enabled elevations of over 100 kilometers to be reached, which was one of its world records.
X-15 these three records:
- It was the first operational space plane.
- It got to a height of over 100 km.
- It flew over six times the speed of sound (Mach 6.70).
This is our unbeaten fastest plane in the world ever built.
