what is the fastest a plane can go
What's the World's Fastest Manned Airplane? View full size image. The world's fastest manned plane is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. It set a record of 2,193.2 miles per hour (3,530 kilometers per hour) at Beale Air Force Base in California back in 1976. The U.S. Air Force used this manned aircraft from 1964 to 1998. The fastest unmanned plane is the NASA X-43, which flew at 7,000 mph (11,265 kph) in 2004 (that's Mach 9.8 if you're keeping track). The X-43 flies on the back of a winged booster rocket, called a stack, which is launched from a larger B52 bomber.