Where air speed is concerned, the speed is never simply a number—it’s what offsets the difference between success and disaster. The aircraft with higher speed can seize an opportunity before becoming under attack, fly beyond a large volume of enemy planes, or strike almost exactly at the right time. How fast a plane can go, the aviators and the engineers have challenged the hardware and their physical capabilities for many years. Almost the entire Cold War period mythologies to rocket plane experiments, these ten machines tell the story of courage and speed, the most amazing chapter of human flight history.
10. Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker
Su-27 was the Soviet response to high-performance American fighter aircraft, and it did not let anyone down. At Mach 2.35, the Flanker married brute power with astounding agility due to its fly-by-wire system. Rolled out in 1977, it was the precursor to an entire tribe of jets—Su-30, Su-33, Su-34, Su-35, and Su-37—that guard skies globally today. With a 30 mm cannon and a series of hardpoints for missiles, it proved that firepower and velocity could be married.
9. General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark
A non-traditional fighter, the F-111 was an attack aircraft that operated with fighter speed; it could fly Mach 2.5 and carry more than 14,000 kg of bombs, missiles, or even nuclear weapons. Its variable wing design allowed low-level high-speed precision strikes, and it was a very useful asset. Although there were never any plans for carrier deployment, the Aardvark was utilized for many various purposes before being retired in 1998.
8. McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle
There are a few aircraft that come anywhere near the F-15’s record. Capable of flying well over Mach 2.5 and having a near 1:1 thrust-to-weight ratio, it can accelerate and climb with unchallenged superiority. Since entering service in 1976, the Eagle is still the standard by which air-to-air combat aircraft are measured, with over 100 confirmed victories without loss in air combat. Equipped with a 20 mm Vulcan gun and multiple types of missiles, it was then manufactured as the F-15E Strike Eagle for strike missions on the ground. 7. Mikoyan MiG-31 Foxhound
MiG-31 was intended to pursue supersonic bombers and cruise missiles. It has two engines and achieves Mach 2.83, and with advanced radars, it can detect huge slices of airspace and coordinate intercepts hundreds of kilometers away. Equipped with a 23 mm gun and range missiles, the Foxhound remains flight-capable decades after its launch—a reflection of its sound design.
6. XB-70 Valkyrie
The XB-70 was a show and a bomber, too. Weighing 240,000 kg with six engines, it could cruise at Mach 3, its skin reaching temperatures above 300°C. Intended to fly faster than interceptors and ride out nuclear shockwaves, it was the pinnacle of Cold War flight. Just two were constructed, but their brash speed and space-age looks made a lasting impression on aviation history.
5. Bell X-2 Starbuster
The X-2 Starbuster was an outright research plane, soaring over Mach 2. Sleek and knife-sharp, it reached Mach 3.196 in 1956, sending pilots over into the unknown. The project was plagued by disaster when test pilot Milburn G. Apt lost control and crashed, but the flight with the X-2 informed the design of later high-speed planes.
4. Mikoyan MiG-25 Foxbat
Few aircraft have carried so much wonder as the MiG-25. Built to pursue high-altitude American spy aircraft, it could roar through the skies at Mach 3.2. Equipped with four missiles, it was made in vast quantities—more than 1,100—and though it never shot down an SR-71, it was a deadly foe in such battles as the Iran-Iraq war. Even decades afterward, its sheer speed demands respect.
3. Lockheed YF-12
The YF-12 spawned the SR-71 legend. A prototype interceptor, it flew at Mach 3.35 and established numerous speed and altitude records in the 1960s. Only three were produced, but their design went on to straight away influence one of the most recognizable planes of the Cold War.
2. Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
No collection of supersonic icons would be complete without the SR-71. Supersonic at more than Mach 3.3, it was proof against any interceptor or missile throughout its lifetime. Its titanium frame would heat up and pour fuel on the runway upon landing from the friction produced while in flight, a mythological reminder of the extravagance of supersonic flight. The Blackbird is an icon of American creativity and Cold War ideology.
1. North American X-15
The record holder is the X-15. It was experimental and rocket-powered and flew at Mach 6.7 in 1967, the limit of airplanes and spaceships. Launched from a B-52, it used rocket thrusters to rotate in the tenuous atmosphere and flew more than 100 km in altitude, becoming the fastest manned flying machine ever and the first real spaceplane.
These ten planes are more than numbers—these are achievements of human courage and ingenuity. Speed in war aviation has never been a record—it can be the difference between victory and survival and the course of history itself.