Posted on 01/19/2021 9:39:57 AM PST by Onthebrink
When it comes to getting from point A to point B, taking to the air is the quickest way possible, obviously. For commercial fliers, nothing was faster than the British-French designed Concorde SST, which could reach Mach 2.04 (2,180 km/h) at cruise altitude. The supersonic transport had an excellent safety record until 2000 when Air France flight 4590 crashed just after taking off from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. It re-entered service, but rising costs grounded the plane permanently three years later.
The Concorde’s record for cross Atlantic commercial travel has yet to be beaten, but when it comes to raw speed there are many aircraft that would leave the Concorde SST in the proverbial dust, and certainly some contrails. Here is our take on what we would argue are the five fastest planes ever to fly.
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
A thing of beauty and WAY ahead of its time.
WTF is a km/h?
(...and where's my flying car?)
Skunk Works: Finest aviation team ever...
WTF is a km/h?
~~~
It’s the non-US conversion for the secret service name for the Vice President starting tomorrow.
A-12
You know - you don’t have to live under that rock....
One thing that killed the YF-12A was turning radius at high speeds.
Second was the challenge of launching a missile at ‘those’ speeds’ and having it not shoot YOU down.
Sure, the 707-120B’s top speed was 628mph (https://www.airliners.net/aircraft-data/boeing-707/87)
A 787 hit 801mph (https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/flight-reaches-801-mph-as-a-furious-jet-stream-packs-record-breaking-speeds/)
But in terms of normal cruising speed? I think the 707 is still slightly faster than the 747s or the A380s.
R.I.P. America
“Windage and Elevation, Mrs. Langdon...windage and elevation.”
Why do you list the YF-12 and the SR-71 as two of the five, when they are just variants of each other and should have been only counted once.
And why does your article repeatedly refer to the “FY-12” when the correct designation is “YF-12?” Auto correct can be a bear...
It’s what happens when you spend your time in school preventing unwanted banana pregnancies instead of learning to spell ‘mph’.
ICBMs killed the F-12B. In a world where you're no longer facing just some long range bombers - but rather a flurry of nukes that fly themselves down from space - a massively expensive to build, expensive to operate fighter whose only real role is to shoot down long range bombers just isn't that attractive.
The YF-23 is neato!
The 747 has a cruise speed of about 750mph. More than that, it moves people more efficiently.
It's a European thing.
It is supposed to make them sound
more sophisticated than Americans.
I still want a flying car - but only if it makes the same noises as the one George Jetson drove!
That - and a spandex jacket “One for everyone”.
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