Fastest Ever

What is the fastest an aircraft or a spacecraft has ever gone? The fastest piston-powered airplane is a modified Grumman F8F called Rare Bear, which reached 528 miles per hour  (850 kph). The fastest jet airplane is the SR-71 Blackbird, which set a speed record of  2,193 miles per hour (3,429 kph). The X-15 rocket-powered airplane flew at 4,520 miles per hour (7,274 kph) on the edge of space where there is little air friction. The Space Shuttle has been measured at speeds over 17,000 miles per hour (27,359 kph), and the Apollo manned spacecraft traveled at 24,500 miles/hour (39,428 kph) between the earth and the moon the fastest a person has ever traveled. But much faster speeds are possible. The  Pioneer 11 spacecraft, when it swung by Jupiter, clocked in at 107,000 miles per hour (172,200 kph) fast enough to escape our solar system.  While approaching Jupiter on 4 July 2016, the gravity of the giant planet accelerated the Juno probe to approximately 165,000 miles per hour (265,000 kph) making it the fastest man-made object ever built.


State troopers, after pulling the Juno spacecraft over for speeding, write a ticket.  At $10 for ever mile per hour over the limit, that's gonna cost someone $1,649,350 ― plus court costs.

Fastest Airplanes and Spacecraft