Is blackbird the fastest aircraft????

Answer 1

No, the X-15 is the fastest manned aircraft, travelling at a top speed of mach 6.72. For an unmanned aircraft, the X-43 travels at mach 9.8. The Blackbird travels at mach 3.2+, which makes it the fastest airplane, but not fastest airCRAFT.

Answer 2

WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- They were officially retired from active service years ago, but NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center keeps finding ways to send up the world's fastest aircraft - the SR-71, nicknamed the Blackbird. Its last scheduled flight is due within a week, but there is no doubt that the sleek, twin-engined craft will be going up again soon after.

"It has a lot of fans," Dryden spokeswoman Leslie Mathews said.

Capable of speeds over Mach 3 and altitudes of 85,000 feet, the SR-71 is the fastest aircraft in the world today, and the fastest jet plane ever built. The speed and altitude records are still held by its contemporary of the late 1960s, the X-15, which flew over Mach 5 and reached the edge of space.

Although the SR-71 cannot match the X-15's feats as a near-spacecraft, it is working to make such technology feasible and cheaper. Dryden planned the four flights to determine how well the plane could fly carrying a large "canoe" on its back, Mathews said.

The canoe is a test fixture, originally designed for the linear aerospike engines of the X-33 program, but only used during ground tests in the past.

"You can put anything inside of it," Mathews said, turning the SR-71 into "a real wind tunnel," more accurate in terms of temperature and density then a ground-based, simulated wind tunnel.

NASA pilots first took the canoe up on the Blackbird on June 30 of this year, the first flight of any SR-71 since October of 1998. On that flight, the plane went only Mach 2.25.

"By the third flight they made it to Mach 3 and it handled wonderfully," Mathews said. "It wanted to go faster. Nothing's going to slow that baby down."

The plane is a favorite of aerospace employees in the Antelope Valley area around Dryden, Mathews said. It was developed there, in the same area that was home that to the X-15 and its predecessor the X-1, the first plane to break the speed of sound.

"All the employees come out to look at it, every time it goes up," Mathews said. "It's been doing great."

Both military and private programs working on supersonic technology have expressed interest in using the SR-71 as a test bed, Mathews said, insuring future flights.

The first experiment will probably be a test of the Pulse Detonation Engine, a supersonic engine with fewer moving parts and greater efficiency then current designs. It will be tested at a wind tunnel at Glenn Research Center in Ohio first, and will then be flown to Mach 3 on the Blackbird. Live fire tests are scheduled for 2002.

Answer 3

Yes, the SR-71 Blackbird was and is still the fastest aircraft ever made. It was powered by 2 massive jet engines and was air refuelable so it had intercontinrntal range. The only other craft that went faster in atmosphere was the X-15 rocketplane, which was dropped from a bomber at altitude, accelerated until its fuel ran out and then glided back to earth.

Answer 4

The fastest on officially for the US military, yes. Lockheed Martin made it in the mid 60's if I remember correctly. However, the government has been working on hypersonic (mach 5 and greater) technology for quite some time now, and I am sure, since they are officially decomissioning the blackbird, that they will have a much faster replacement. Getting the govn't to admit to a faster aircraft, however is a very different story...

Answer 5

Aircraft yes, but there are two kinds: jet powered or rocket powered.

The one powered by pure jet engines would be the SR-71 which required special JP fuel with very low flash point.

Rocket powerd aircraft : Air force classifies the Shuttle as the fastest one to the present day. Faster than the X-15. But these two are not conventional aircrafts. Take offs and landings.

Answer 6

The fastest manuverable aircraft, yes, but I think the mantle of fastest aircraft went to the X-15 or some other one similar which achieved over mach 6.

Answer 7

depends on what you consider an aircraft. if you mean fastest flyer then that would be the space shuttle which is the worlds most expensive glider on re entry it is traveling 13,000 miles an hour

Answer 8

Fastest and highest De-CLassified.
there may be faster higher but we dont know about them

Answer 9

to present day the black bird is the fastest

Answer 10

its the fastest there letting us know about.