Highest speed

Tom-D

Taxi to Parking
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Tom-D
What's the highest speed you've attained?
me, about 225 indicated
 
My personal plane, about 190 KIAS. Flying a Mustang fam ride, I think I we hit 250 on the bottom of the loop. Helos, 172 indicated.
 
Relative to what?

Currently spinning at about 1100 mph, while orbiting the sun at 66,000 mph while the solar system orbits the galactic center at about 500,000 mph while the galaxy moves towards the great attractor at....
 
It's a virtual tie. The Mooney in level flight is about 155kts, or 178mph. Back in the day, on a level road my Honda CBR1100XX hit an indicated 177mph.

So call it 178mph, air or ground, take your choice!
 
Around 890kts or 1000mph.

On TF-30s and no compressor stall? Impossible! :D

Saw an F-15 on radar once over 1,000 kts. Would have liked to known what he topped out at but the old radar software only registered 3 digits. What was even more impressive was the acceleration from 500 to 1,000.
 
As self-loading cargo I've seen about 750 mph over the ground. Great tail wind over the Pacific.
 
185 Kts in an AH-1...diving fire...
 
Indicated airspeed highest in anything I've flown was 250 KIAS, which is Vne on the MU-2.

TAS, around 350 KTAS (doing 250 KIAS in a dive at FL200)

Ground speed, highest has been 410 KTS (doing that 250 KIAS in a dive at FL200 with a honkin' tailwind.

Those are my highest for aircraft I've personally flown.
 
Relative to what?

Currently spinning at about 1100 mph, while orbiting the sun at 66,000 mph while the solar system orbits the galactic center at about 500,000 mph while the galaxy moves towards the great attractor at....
Your earth is faster than my earth.
 
60 mph downhill on a bicycle seemed a lot faster than cruise speed in a Cessna 210.
And you need a good bicycle, perfect positioning on it, and a steep hill to hit that number. Low 50s was as good as I could get.
But in an airplane (a SOB — Someone Else's Bonanza) I got to 177 TAS, which was about 75 more than my Skyhawk.
 
265 kts fastest indicated level flight
280 kts in a slight dive
305 kts over the ground at 10k feet with a tail wind.
 

I think he’s added a bit of color to that story. Some valid points here from a guy who apparently worked SR-71s at ARTCC:

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/military/56350-sr-71-speed.html

Seems that they never tracked them on radar at that altitude anyway. It was all VFR and position reporting from the aircraft. Specs for the old ARSR-1 radar show a max altitude of 61,000 ft so that makes sense. I think the odds would be slim that they’d both happen to be monitoring VHF while up UHF. And if what’s said above is true, they’d never hear the F-18 on UHF either.

I read on ATC Memes awhile back from another center controller, that the old ARSR software only registered a 3 digit ground speed. I can tell you on our approach radar system (ARTS IIIA) that was the same. Above 990 kts GS, you got +++ for a speed. It’s also only in 10 kt increments and not single digit as in the story. He also changed the F-18’s book (Sled Driver) speed of 525 kts, to this YT presentation of 620 kts.

A good story nonetheless.:)
 
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I got 200.095 MPH going through the timing lights in a dragster once. But that was on the ground with my butt about 10 inches off the ground.
 
During a winter PPL flight we broke 200mph (GPS/gs) in straight level flight at 3500agl...in our fixed gear 182 :)

I remember flying the pattern and my CFI commenting on the craziest crab angle ever he could see the runway on left down :) Even better, down on the ground it was like on 12kts crosswind. Funny there wasn't wind shear - I'll probably never see that crazy combination again. Winters up here and crazy winds go together.
 
174kts "indicated" on a long down hill final into SMF after being told to maintain maximum forward speed in my little bug smasher.
 
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More important stat is kts per dollar input into the system.
That is what limits us most from achieving a higher vmax.
And the highest kts/$ wins!
(if you don't own the a/c or pay the expenses, you must include current market values!)
 
More important stat is kts per dollar input into the system.
That is what limits us most from achieving a higher vmax.
And the highest kts/$ wins!
(if you don't own the a/c or pay the expenses, you must include current market values!)

Well, that motorcycle was about $8k, so 150kts/$8k = .0118kts/$.

Maybe $/kt is a better metric?

$53.33/kt.
 
Airplane - Took my Sonex almost to VNE, 165KIAS. $30,000/165 = $182 per knot.

Helicopter - In about a 70 degree dive, > 200KTAS, the helicopter did not use or easily display KIAS. Well beyond VNE. Very little symptoms of retreating blade stall. $35,000,000/200 = $175,000 per knot.
 
Somewhere near Mach 0.2, it sounds way faster that way.

Ground speed? Maybe around Mach 0.26
 
Meacham Field to Denver in just over an hour. Ground speed was over 450kts. Wind at FL250 was crazy, something like 200+ knots...

Barber pole was over at the nine o'clock position, but I don't recollect the actual speed...

Piper Cheyenne ii with the go-fast kit on it...
 
M2.1 - well over 1,000 knots ground (not sure either since it only displays ground in three digits for us too). Fastest indicated was about 680knots at 5k'.

In my Bo I saw 240kts ground with a smokin tailwind.
 
M2.1 - well over 1,000 knots ground (not sure either since it only displays ground in three digits for us too). Fastest indicated was about 680knots at 5k'.

In my Bo I saw 240kts ground with a smokin tailwind.

Does your radar provide GS of another aircraft in 4 digits?
 
211kts gs in my old slowarria. 11.5' and a good rearwind. -5kts gs once in the same plane. That felt funny!

726kts gs in the junglejet going downhill in the jetstream core. I have pic of that from a cardboard camera somewhere in the hangar.
 
Relative to what?

Currently spinning at about 1100 mph, while orbiting the sun at 66,000 mph while the solar system orbits the galactic center at about 500,000 mph while the galaxy moves towards the great attractor at....

Everywhere I've ever been was "here". I have never moved relative to "here". Everything else moves relative to me. The surface of the Earth once moved 200 mph relative to me.
 
Bicycle, 56 mph, downhill, in NH
Motorcycle 145 mph, don't even have a license, friend on back was not happy with me.
Car 125 mph
Airplane, me flying about 185 true, downhill again, +/-, generally don't pay that close attention to this though.
 
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