The Three Fastest Planes
Many of us like planes. Especially those jets that move so fast and break the sound barrier, unleashing an ear-splitting sonic boom! There are the few planes that set it apart from others of its class, becoming the fastest airplanes alive. What are they?
1. Fastest Commercial Airplane – It’s close, but the winner is the Boeing 747! Its unique shape reduces drag and allows it to move faster than all other commercial planes, about 0.015 Mach faster. Concorde and Tu-144 are both retired, so the 747 is officially the fastest.
2. Fastest Jet – Officially, the fastest jet is the SR-71 Blackbird. It can sustain Mach 3.3 and can even get close to Mach 4, but such a speed would destroy the plane. And that wouldn’t be very good at all! An experimental jet aircraft has been measured to get to Mach 10, but it was not considered the fastest since the speed couldn’t be sustained for more than a few seconds.
3. Fastest Propeller Plane – What, you think these things are dead? The Tupolev Tu-114 is the winner here, with this jet propeller plane reaching a speed of Mach 0.78. If you’re looking for a more traditional propeller plane, the B-29 is recorded to have reached a speed of 369.69 mph (594.96 km/h).
There you have it! What do you think of these really fast machines? It must be exhilarating to ride in a jet!
Filed under: trivia | Tagged: Aircraft, airplanes, Boeing, Travel, trivia
