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On a clear July day in 1966, New York Central Railroad engineer Don Wetzel and his team boarded a specially modified Buddliner railcar. Bolted to the roof above them were two GE J47-19 jet engines. Wetzel throttled the engines up and tore down a length of track from Butler, Indiana, to Stryker, Ohio, at almost 184 mph, piloting the experimental vehicle into the record books as the world’s fastest jet-powered train.

For spacecraft that zoom through the cosmos at thousands of miles per hour, calculating which one is traveling at the fastest speed is more complicated than simply clocking the first to cross the finish line. When space agencies calculate and establish speed records, these numbers need to be defined and qualified, because there can be more than one frame of reference. In other words, the speed of a spacecraft can be calculated relative to the Earth, the sun, or some other body. The record for the highest speed at which a spacecraft has launched and escaped from Earth's gravity is...

Man Sets Lawn Mower Speed Record Mower Goes More Than 80 MPH POSTED: 4:22 pm EDT July 5, 2006 BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS, Utah -- A new speed record was set in Utah on Tuesday -- on a lawn mower. Bob Cleveland went more than 80 mph on his lawn mower across the Bonneville Salt Flats. Since there is no record for fastest lawn mower, Cleveland won by default. On the downside, he won't be able to get his yard work done any faster. He said the mower doesn't cut grass, it just goes fast.

Swedish automobiles have long been known as safe and steady, not fast and furious. It's no accident you've never heard the phrase "Swede speed." Right now, you're thinking about boxy, safe Volvo wagons, handy in the snow and adept with the kids and groceries, not high performance roadsters. Enter Christian von Koenigsegg, a 33-year-old Swede with fast dreams. And he's got a former fighter jet assembly plant to bring them to life. Clocking in at 245 miles per hour, Koenigsegg Automotive broke the world speed record for a production car last year with the Koenigsegg CCR. Since the first production...

MOJAVE - Calling it "the shortest long-distance flight in history," aviator Dick Rutan entered the record books again Saturday, this time for a rocket plane flight from Mojave to California City. Rutan - who already holds numerous distance and speed records, including the non-stop, round-the world Voyager flight 19 years ago - piloted XCOR Aerospace's EZ-Rocket. Rutan also was the first to test the aircraft when the rocket engine demonstrator debuted in 2001. The world's first privately built, rocket-powered aircraft, the EZ-Rocket is a Long-EZ kit plane modified with twin 400-pound thrust rocket engines instead of the usual engine and...

4/30/2003 - HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- A 192-pound, fully instrumented Missile Defense Agency payload traveled a little more than three miles in 6.04 seconds April 29, validating Holloman's high-speed test track hypersonic upgrades and setting a world land speed record. Air Force Materiel Command experts conducted the test in New Mexico's Tularosa Basin where Air Force officials witnessed a four-stage, rail-bound rocket sled reach Mach 8.5 or 6,416 mph. That equates to more than 31 football fields per second. The sled broke the standing world land speed record of Mach 8.1 for travel on rails, also set...