section_path: Size and speed extremes/Speeds
section_name: Speeds
paragraph_text: Speeds
  
  The fastest fixed-wing aircraft and fastest glider, is the Space Shuttle, which re-entered the atmosphere at nearly Mach 25 or 17,500 mph (28,200 km/h)
  
  The fastest recorded powered aircraft flight and fastest recorded aircraft flight of an air-breathing powered aircraft was of the NASA X-43 A Pegasus, a scramjet -powered, hypersonic, lifting body experimental research aircraft, at Mach 9.68 or 6,755 mph (10,870 km/h) on 16 November 2004.
  
  Prior to the X-43A, the fastest recorded powered airplane flight, and still the record for the fastest manned powered airplane, was the North American X-15, rocket-powered airplane at Mach 6.7 or 7,274 km/h (4,520 mph) on 3 October 1967.
  
  The fastest manned, air-breathing powered airplane is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, a U.S. reconnaissance jet fixed-wing aircraft, having reached 3,530 km/h (2,193 mph) on 28 July 1976.