stringtranslate.com

Flight altitude record

Explorer II gondola, 1935

This listing of flight altitude records are the records set for the highest aeronautical flights conducted in the atmosphere, set since the age of ballooning.

Some, but not all of the records were certified by the non-profit international aviation organization, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). One reason for a lack of 'official' certification was that the flight occurred prior to the creation of the FAI.[1]

For clarity, the "Fixed-wing aircraft" table is sorted by FAI-designated categories as determined by whether the record-creating aircraft left the ground by its own power (category "Altitude"), or whether it was first carried aloft by a carrier-aircraft prior to its record setting event (category "Altitude gain", or formally "Altitude Gain, Aeroplane Launched from a Carrier Aircraft"). Other sub-categories describe the airframe, and more importantly, the powerplant type (since rocket-powered aircraft can have greater altitude abilities than those with air-breathing engines).[1]

An essential requirement for the creation of an "official" altitude record is the employment of FAI-certified observers present during the record-setting flight.[1] Thus several records noted are unofficial due to the lack of such observers.

Balloons

In 1931, Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer (photo) reached a record altitude of 15,781 m. In 1932, Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns made a second record-breaking ascent to 16,201 m. Auguste Piccard ultimately made a total of twenty-seven balloon flights, setting a final record of 23,000 m [citation needed].

Hot-air balloons

Uncrewed gas balloon

During 1893 French scientist Jules Richard constructed sounding balloons. These uncrewed balloons, carrying light, but very precise instruments, approached an altitude of 15.24 km (50,000 ft).[8]

A Winzen balloon launched from Chico, California, in 1972 set the uncrewed altitude record of 51.8 km (170,000 ft). Its volume was 1,350,000 m3 (47,800,000 cu ft).[9]

On September 20, 2013, JAXA launched an ultrathin film balloon called BS13-08 made of 2.8 μm thick polyethylene film with a volume of 80,000 m3 (2,800,000 cu ft), which was 60 m (200 ft) in diameter). The balloon rose at a speed of 250 metres per minute (820 ft/min) and reached an altitude of 53.7 km (176,000 ft), surpassing the previous world record set in 2002[10]

This was the greatest height a flying object reached without using rockets or a launch with a cannon.

Gliders

On February 17, 1986, The highest altitude obtained by a soaring aircraft was set at 14.938 km (49,009 ft) by Robert Harris using lee waves over California City, United States.[11] The flight was accomplished using the Grob 102 Standard Astir III.[12]

This was surpassed at 15.46 km (50,720 ft) set on August 30, 2006, by Steve Fossett (pilot) and Einar Enevoldson (co-pilot) in their high performance research glider Perlan 1, a modified Glaser-Dirks DG-500.[11] This record was achieved over El Calafate (Patagonia, Argentina) and set as part of the Perlan Project.[13]

This was raised at 15.902 km (52,172 ft) on September 3, 2017[14] by Jim Payne (pilot) and Morgan Sandercock (co-pilot) in the Perlan 2,[15] a special built high altitude research glider. This record was again achieved over El Calafate and as part of the Perlan Project.[13]

On September 2, 2018, within the Airbus Perlan Mission II, again from El Calafate, the Perlan II piloted by Jim Payne and Tim Gardner reached 23.203 km (76,124 ft), surpassing the 22.475 km (73,737 ft) attained by Jerry Hoyt on April 17, 1989, in a Lockheed U-2: the highest subsonic flight.[16]

Fixed-wing aircraft

Piston-driven propeller aeroplane

The highest altitude obtained by a piston-driven propeller UAV (without payload) is 20.430 kilometres (67,028 ft). It was obtained during 1988–1989 by the Boeing Condor UAV.[58]

The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller biplane (without a payload) was 17.083 km (56,050 ft) on October 22, 1938, by Mario Pezzi at Montecelio, Italy in a Caproni Ca.161 driven by a Piaggio XI R.C. engine.[59]

The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller monoplane (without a payload) was 18.552 km (60,870 ft) on August 4, 1995, by the Grob Strato 2C driven by two Teledyne Continental TSIO-550 engines.

Jet aircraft

The highest current world absolute general aviation altitude record for air breathing jet-propelled aircraft is 37.650 kilometres (123,520 ft) set by Aleksandr Vasilyevich Fedotov in a Mikoyan-Gurevich E-266M (MiG-25M) on August 31, 1977.[60][61]

Rocket plane

The record for highest altitude obtained by a crewed rocket-powered aircraft is the US Space Shuttle (STS) which regularly reached altitudes of more than 500 kilometres (310 mi) on servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The highest altitude obtained by a crewed aeroplane (launched from another aircraft) is 112.010 km (367,490 ft) by Brian Binnie in the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne (powered by a Scaled Composite SD-010 engine with 80,000 newtons (18,000 lbf) of thrust) on October 4, 2004, at Mojave, California. The SpaceShipOne was launched at over 13.3 km (44,000 ft).[57]

The previous (unofficial) record was 107.960 km (354,200 ft) set by Joseph A. Walker in a North American X-15 in mission X-15 Flight 91 on August 22, 1963. Walker had reached 106 km – crossing the Kármán line the first time – with X-15 Flight 90 the previous month.

During the X-15 program, 8 pilots flew a combined 13 flights which met the Air Force spaceflight criterion by exceeding the altitude of 80 kilometres (50 mi), qualifying these pilots as being astronauts; of those 13 flights, two (flown by the same civilian pilot) met the FAI definition of outer space: 100 kilometres (62 mi).[62]

Mixed power

The official record for a mixed power aircraft was achieved on May 2, 1958, by Roger Carpentier when he reached 24.217 km (79,450 ft) over Istres, France in a Sud-Ouest Trident II mixed power (turbojet & rocket engine) aircraft.[63]

The unofficial altitude record for mixed-power-aircraft with self-powered takeoff was 36.8 km (120,800 ft) on December 6, 1963, by Major Robert W. Smith in a Lockheed NF-104A mixed power (turbojet and rocket engine) aircraft.[64]

Electrically powered aircraft

The highest altitude obtained by an electrically powered aircraft is 29.524 kilometres (96,863 ft) on August 14, 2001, by the NASA Helios, and is the highest altitude in horizontal flight by a winged aircraft. This is also the altitude record for propeller driven aircraft, FAI class U (Experimental / New Technologies), and FAI class U-1.d (Remotely controlled UAV, weight 500 to 2,500 kg (1,100 to 5,500 lb)).[65]

Rotorcraft

On June 21, 1972, Jean Boulet of France piloted an Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama helicopter to an absolute altitude record of 12.440 kilometres (40,814 ft).[66] At that extreme altitude, the engine flamed out and Boulet had to land the helicopter by breaking another record: the longest successful autorotation in history.[67] The helicopter was stripped of all unnecessary equipment prior to the flight to minimize weight, and the pilot breathed supplemental oxygen.

Paper airplanes

The highest altitude obtained by a paper plane was previously held by the Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) project, which was released at an altitude of 27.307 kilometres (89,590 ft), from a helium balloon that was launched approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Madrid, Spain on October 28, 2010, and recorded by The Register's "special projects bureau". The project achieved a Guinness world record recognition.[68][69]

This record was broken on 24 June 2015 in Cambridgeshire, UK by the Space Club of Kesgrave High School, Suffolk, as part of their Stratos III project. The paper plane was launched from a balloon at 35.043 kilometres (114,970 ft).[70][71]

Cannon rounds

The current world-record for highest cannon projectile flight is held by Project HARP’s 410 mm (16 in) space gun prototype, which fired a 180 kg (400 lb) Martlet 2 projectile to a record height of 180 kilometres (590,000 ft; 110 mi) in Yuma, Arizona, on November 18, 1966. The projectile’s trajectory sent it beyond the Kármán line at 100 km (62 mi), making it the first cannon-fired projectile to do so.[72]

The Paris Gun (German: Paris-Geschütz) was a German long-range siege gun used to bombard Paris during World War I. It was in service from March–August 1918. Its 106-kilogram (234 lb) shells had a range of about 130 km (80 mi) with a maximum altitude of about 42.3 km (26.3 mi).

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The FAI Absolute Altitude (#2325) record for balloon flight set in 1961 by Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather is still current, since it requires the balloonist to descend with the balloon.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Maksel, Rebecca (May 29, 2009). "Who Holds the Altitude Record For an Airplane?: Depends On the Category—And On Who Was Watching". Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
  2. ^ Hazen, H. A. (December 9, 1898). "Glaisher's Highest Balloon Ascension". The Aeronautical Journal. 3 (9): 13. doi:10.1017/S2398187300143610. ISSN 2398-1873. S2CID 164568526.
  3. ^ Free-falling, New Scientist, July 26, 2006, archived from the original on November 7, 2017
  4. ^ The International Air Sports Federation (FAI). "Ballooning World Records". Archived from the original on September 8, 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  5. ^ Markoff, John (October 24, 2014). "Alan Eustace Jumps From Stratosphere, Breaking Felix Baumgartner's World Record". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014.
  6. ^ "Alan Eustace and the Paragon StratEx Team Make Stratospheric Exploration History".
  7. ^ McFarlan, Donald, ed. (1991). The Guinness Book of World Records (1991 ed.). Bantam Books. p. 316. ISBN 9780553289541.
  8. ^ "Early Scientific Balloons". Archived from the original on February 8, 2011. Retrieved February 4, 2011.
  9. ^ McFarlan, Donald, ed. (1991). The Guinness Book of World Records (1991 ed.). Bantam Books. p. 315. ISBN 9780553289541.
  10. ^ "ISAS | 超薄膜高高度気球（BS13-08）が無人気球到達高度の世界記録を更新 / トピックス". www.isas.jaxa.jp. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  11. ^ a b "Fédération Aéronautique Internationale — Gliding World Records". Archived from the original on April 13, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2009.
  12. ^ "Grob 102 Standard Astir III – Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum". Retrieved September 30, 2022.
  13. ^ a b DG Flugzeugbau GmbH. "Perlan Project". Archived from the original on December 15, 2010.
  14. ^ gGmbH, Segelflugszene. "OLC Flight information – Jim Payne (US) – 03.09.2017". www.onlinecontest.org. Archived from the original on September 3, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
  15. ^ "The Powerless Plane Riding the Wind to a New Altitude Record". WIRED. Archived from the original on September 4, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
  16. ^ "Airbus Perlan Mission II glider soars to 76,000 feet to break own altitude record, surpassing even U-2 reconnaissance plane" (Press release). Airbus. September 3, 2018.
  17. ^ "Concours d'Aviation de Douai". The First Air Races. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  18. ^ "1910 Dominguez Meet – Paulhan". Archived from the original on February 8, 2007.
  19. ^ Washington Post. June 18, 1910. Indianapolis, Indiana, June 17, 1910. Walter Brookins, in a Wright biplane, broke the world's aeroplane record for altitude today, when he soared to a height of 4,603 feet (1,403 m), according to the measurement of the altimeter. His motor stopped as he was descending, and he made a glide of 2 miles (3.2 km), landing easily in a wheat field. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  20. ^ Lewis 1971, p. 32.
  21. ^ "International Aviation Tournament". Newsday. Archived from the original on April 26, 2008.
  22. ^ "Hoxsey Soars 11,474 Feet; World's Record". Los Angeles Herald. December 27, 1910. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  23. ^ "Hoxsey, Capsized By Wind, Crashes In Biplane To Instant Death At Dominguez Field". Los Angeles Herald. January 1, 1911. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  24. ^ "Roland Garros (FRA) (15888)". October 10, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  25. ^ Aerial Age. 1915. Joseph E. Carberry, who holds the American record for altitude, accompanied by passenger, Capt. B. D. Foulois, Lt. T. DeWitt Milling, Lt. Ira A. Rader, Lt., Carlton G. Chapman ...
  26. ^ Evangelisti, Giorgio, Gente dell'Aria vol. 6, Ed. Olimpia, 2000
  27. ^ FAI record file #15455 Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  28. ^ Rosenthal, Marchand, Borget, Bénichou. Nieuport 1909–1950, Larivière, 1997, ISBN 2907051113.
  29. ^ Owers 1993, p. 51.
  30. ^ Flight December 16, 1920, p. 1274.
  31. ^ Angelucci and Bowers 1987, p. 195.
  32. ^ FAI record file #8246 Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  33. ^ a b Flight February 7, 1924, p. 75.
  34. ^ FAI record file #8223 Archived March 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  35. ^ "FAI Record ID #8384". Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. April 30, 2012. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
  36. ^ "Airisms from the Air: Some "Record"". Flight. Vol. XIX, no. 976. September 8, 1927. p. 635. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014.
  37. ^ "Macready May Win Record". Popular Science. December 1927. p. 54.
  38. ^ "World's Records In Aviation Archived 2012-03-08 at the Wayback Machine". Flight, March 20, 1931, p. 247.
  39. ^ Andrews and Morgan 1988, pp. 205–206.
  40. ^ "The New Altitude Record Archived 2012-03-09 at the Wayback Machine". Flight, October 19, 1933. p. 1043.
  41. ^ "The World's Aviation Records Archived 2012-10-26 at the Wayback Machine". Flight, August 16, 1934, p. 844.
  42. ^ Cooper, Ralph. "Renato Donati 1894– Archived 2010-09-27 at the Wayback Machine". The Early Birds of Aviation. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
  43. ^ Détré, Georges. "J'ai piloté le Potez 506 à 15.000m." L'album du fanatique de l'aviation, March 1971. p. 27.
  44. ^ a b Lewis 1971, p. 485.
  45. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 346.
  46. ^ Bridgman 1951, p. 6b.
  47. ^ Lewis 1971, pp. 327–328.
  48. ^ "Bell X-1".
  49. ^ Lewis 1971, p. 371.
  50. ^ Gibbs, Yvonne (August 12, 2015). "NASA Armstrong NASA Bell X-1 Fact Sheet: Second Generation X-1". Archived from the original on November 9, 2011.
  51. ^ Lewis 1971, p. 389.
  52. ^ "50th Anniversary of Two Historic X-2 Milestones Celebrated," NASA 2006
  53. ^ "The New Navy 1954–1959" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 14, 2000.
  54. ^ a b c d "X-15 First Flight: Appendix A".
  55. ^ "Records: Sub-class : C-1 (Landplanes) Group 3: turbo-jet." records.fai.org. Retrieved: June 30, 2011.
  56. ^ "Einar Enevoldson – Perlan Project". www.perlanproject.org. Archived from the original on November 10, 2016.
  57. ^ a b "FAI Record ID #9881 – Altitude above the earth's surface with or without maneuvres of the aerospacecraft, Class P-1 (Suborbital missions) Archived 2015-10-18 at the Wayback Machine" Mass Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Turnaround time Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Retrieved: November 28, 2015.
  58. ^ "Boeing: History – Products – Boeing Condor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle". Archived from the original on November 20, 2010. Retrieved January 17, 2011.
  59. ^ "Fai Record File". Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2013.
  60. ^ "Alexandr Fedotov (URS) (2826)". World Air Sports Federation. October 10, 2017.
  61. ^ Belyakov, Rostislav Apolossovitch (1994). MiG: Fifty Years of Secret Aircraft Design. J. Marmain. Shrewsbury: Airlife. p. 407. ISBN 1-85310-488-4. OCLC 59850771.
  62. ^ Thompson, Elvia H.; Johnsen, Frederick A. (23 August 2005). "NASA Honors High Flying Space Pioneers" (Press release). NASA. Release 05-233.
  63. ^ "Trident's 79,720ft" (PDF), Flight, p. 623, May 9, 1958, archived from the original on November 1, 2014
  64. ^ George J. Marrett (November 2002). "Sky High in a Starfighter". Air & Space Magazine. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  65. ^ "Aviation and Space World Records". Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  66. ^ "Fai Record File". Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
  67. ^ R. Randall Padfield; R. Padfield (1992). Learning to Fly Helicopters. McGraw Hill Professional. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-07-157724-3.
  68. ^ "Guinness World Record certificate". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  69. ^ Haines, Lester. PARIS soars to Guinness World Record: Highest paper plane launch ever Archived August 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, February 17, 2012.
  70. ^ "Highest altitude paper plane launch, Guinness World Records". Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  71. ^ "Brit school claims highest paper plane launch, The Register". September 3, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  72. ^ Graf, Richard K. "A Brief History of the HARP Project". Encyclopedia Astronautica. astronautix.com. Retrieved August 14, 2013.

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flight altitude record holders.