Fastest Aircraft Ever Flown — Guinness World Records

About This Dataset

Fastest Aircraft Ever Flown — Guinness World Records
The fastest aircraft ever to fly, ranked by maximum recorded speed according to Guinness World Records and official flight test documentation. The NASA/USAF X-15 rocket-powered aircraft holds the speed record for a crewed powered aircraft at Mach 6.72 (7,274 km/h), set in October 1967 — a record that still stands today.
Analysis

The top three in Top Speed (km/h) in 1994 are X-15 (USA) (7,274), SR-71 Blackbird (USA) (3,530) and MiG-25 Foxbat (USSR) (3,395). The 8 entries in Top Speed (km/h) cover a range of 5,095, from 7,274 down to 2,179. Most of that gap is between first and second alone (3,744 of 5,095); the other 7 are separated by just 1,351. The other 6 are bunched between 2,179 and 3,395 Top Speed (km/h).

Source:  Guinness World Records

Key Findings

🏆
X-15 (USA) leads in Top Speed (km/h) with 7,274 in 1994.
📅
1967 recorded the highest combined total across all categories.
↔️
Gap in 1994: X-15 (USA) is 3.3× larger than Concorde (UK/France).

Fastest Aircraft Ever Flown — Guinness World Records

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Data Insights

Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart

Admin
⬡
Data Points
8
8 categories  ·  8 years
↑
Top Value
7,274
X-15 (USA)
Top Speed (km/h) · 1967
◈
Metrics
1
Top Speed (km/h)
◷
Period
1967 – 1994
8 years of data

Methodology & source

Data source
Guinness World Records
Coverage
8 entities · 1967–1994 (8 years) · 8 observations
Measure
Top Speed (km/h)
Last updated
6 September 2026
Compiled by
The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
  • Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
  • Missing years are left empty rather than estimated — no interpolation, no carrying a previous year forward.
  • Change is measured between the first and last year in which an entity actually reported a value, so a series that starts late is not penalised for the years before it existed.
  • The compound annual rate is (last ÷ first)^(1 ÷ years) − 1, using those same two reported years.
  • Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 1994.
  • An entity that reported nothing in the latest year is still listed — it follows the ranked entities in the table rather than being dropped.

Rankings & Full Data

8 records · Top Speed (km/h) · ranked by 1994

✓ 8 sourced
# Category 1967 1968 1969 1970 1972 1975 1976 1994 Change Source
🥇 X-15 (USA) 7,274 — — — — — — — —
🥈 SR-71 Blackbird (USA) — — — — — — 3,530 — —
🥉 MiG-25 Foxbat (USSR) — — — 3,395 — — — — —
4 MiG-31 Foxhound (Russia) — — — — — 3,000 — — —
5 F-15 Eagle (USA) — — — — 2,655 — — — —
6 Eurofighter Typhoon (Europe) — — — — — — — 2,495 —
7 Tu-144 (USSR) — 2,430 — — — — — — —
8 Concorde (UK/France) — — 2,179 — — — — — —

Data Sources & References

All external sources cited in this dataset

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