Flight altitude record

This listing of flight altitude records are the records set for the highest aeronautical flights conducted in the atmosphere, set since the age of ballooning.

Some, but not all of the records were certified by the non-profit international aviation organization, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). One reason for a lack of 'official' certification was that the flight occurred prior to the creation of the FAI.^[1]

For clarity, the "Fixed-wing aircraft" table is sorted by FAI-designated categories as determined by whether the record-creating aircraft left the ground by its own power (category "Altitude"), or whether it was first carried aloft by a carrier-aircraft prior to its record setting event (category "Altitude gain", or formally "Altitude Gain, Aeroplane Launched from a Carrier Aircraft"). Other sub-categories describe the airframe, and more importantly, the powerplant type (since rocket-powered aircraft can have greater altitude abilities than those with air-breathing engines).^[1]

An essential requirement for the creation of an "official" altitude record is the employment of FAI-certified observers present during the record-setting flight.^[1] Thus several records noted are unofficial due to the lack of such observers.

Balloons

In 1931, Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer (photo) reached a record altitude of 15,781 m. In 1932, Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns made a second record-breaking ascent to 16,201 m. Auguste Piccard ultimately made a total of twenty-seven balloon flights, setting a final record of 23,000 m.

• 1783-08-15: 24 m (79 ft); Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier of France, made the first ascent in a hot-air balloon.
• 1783-10-19: 81 m (266 ft); Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, in Paris.
• 1783-10-19: 105 m (344 ft); Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier with André Giroud de Villette, in Paris.
• 1783-11-21: 1,000 m (3,300 ft); Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier with Marquis d'Arlandes, in Paris.
• 1783-12-01: 2.7 km (8,900 ft); Jacques Alexandre Charles and his assistant Marie-Noël Robert, both of France, made the first flight in a hydrogen balloon to about 610 m. Charles then ascended alone to the record altitude.
• 1784: 4 km (13,000 ft) Pilâtre de Rozier and the chemist Joseph Proust in a Montgolfier.
• 1803-07-18: 7.28 km (23,900 ft) Étienne-Gaspard Robert and Auguste Lhoëst in a balloon.
• 1839: 7.9 km (26,000 ft) Charles Green and Spencer Rush in a free balloon.
• 1862-09-05: about 11.887 km (39,000 ft)-Henry Coxwell and James Glaisher in a coal-gas balloon. Glaisher lost consciousness during the ascent due to the low air pressure and cold temperature of −11 °C (12 °F).
• 1927-11-04: 13.222 km (43,380 ft)-Captain Hawthorne C. Gray of the (United States Army Air Corps) in a helium balloon. Gray was killed when his oxygen supply ran out.
• 1931-05-27: 15.787 km (51,790 ft) -Auguste Piccard & Paul Kipfer in a hydrogen balloon.
• 1932: 16.2 km (53,000 ft) -Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns in a hydrogen balloon.
• 1933-09-30: 18.501 km (60,700 ft) USSR balloon USSR-1.
• 1933-11-20: 18.592 km (61,000 ft) Lt. Comdr. Thomas G. W. Settle (USN) and Maj Chester L. Fordney (USMC) in Century of Progress balloon
• 1934-01-30: 21.946 km (72,000 ft) USSR balloon Osoaviakhim-1. The three crew were killed when the balloon broke up during the descent.
• 1935-11-10: 22.066 km (72,400 ft) Captain O. A. Anderson and Captain A. W. Stevens (United States Army Air Corps) ascended in the Explorer II gondola from the Stratobowl, near Rapid City, South Dakota, for a flight that lasted 8 hours 13 minutes and covered 362 kilometres (225 mi).
• 1956-11-08: 23.165 km (76,000 ft) Malcolm D. Ross and M. L. Lewis (United States Navy) in Office of Naval Research Strato-Lab I, using a pressurized gondola and plastic balloon launching near Rapid City, South Dakota, and landing 282 km (175 mi) away near Kennedy, Nebraska.
• 1957-06-02: 29.4997 km (96,784 ft) Captain Joseph W. Kittinger (United States Air Force) ascended in the Manhigh 1 gondola to a record-breaking altitude.
• 1957-08-19: 31.212 km (102,400 ft) above sea level, Major David Simons (United States Air Force) ascended from the Portsmouth Mine near Crosby, Minnesota in the Manhigh 2 gondola for a 32-hour record-breaking flight. Simons landed at 5:32 PM on 20 August in northeast South Dakota.
• 1960-08-16: In testing a high-altitude parachute system, Joseph Kittinger parachuted from Excelsior III over New Mexico at 102,800 ft (31,300 m). He set world records for: high-altitude jump; free-fall by falling 16 mi (26 km) before opening his parachute; and fastest speed achieved by a human without motorized assistance, 614 mph (988 km/h).^[2]
• 1961-05-04: 34.668 km (113,740 ft); Commander Malcolm D. Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather, Jr. (US Navy) in Strato-Lab V, using an unpressurized gondola. After descending, the gondola containing the two balloonists landed in the Gulf of Mexico. Prather slipped off the rescue helicopter's hook into the ocean and drowned.^{[lower-alpha 1]}
• 1966-02-02: Amateur parachute jumper Nicholas Piantanida (USA) reached 123,800 feet (37,700 m) with his Strato Jump II balloon but due to being unable to disconnect his oxygen line from the main capsule's feed he was forced to detach the balloon from the capsule, abort the jump and return in the capsule without the balloon. Due to his glove's design, he was also unable to reattach his safety harnesses and endured very great G forces, but survived the descent. Piantanida's ascent is not recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as a balloon altitude world record.
• 2012-10-14: Felix Baumgartner in Red Bull Stratos reached 38,969 metres (127,851 ft) on a balloon starting near Roswell, New Mexico, USA, and returned to Earth by a parachute jump.
• 2014-10-24: Alan Eustace, a senior vice president at Google, reached 41,424 metres (135,906 ft) on a balloon and returned to Earth by a parachute jump.^[4]

Hot air balloons

On November 26, 2005, Vijaypat Singhania set the world altitude record for highest hot air balloon flight, reaching 21,290 m (69,850 ft). He launched from downtown Bombay, India and landed 240 km (150 mi) south in Panchale. The previous record of 19,811 m (64,997 ft) had been set by Per Lindstrand on June 6, 1988 in Plano, Texas.

Unmanned gas balloon

During 1893 French scientist Jules Richard constructed sounding balloons. These unmanned balloons, carrying light, but very precise instruments, approached an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,240 meters).^[5]

The U.S. (and for a while, the world) altitude record for unmanned balloons was 51.8 km (170,000 ft) (according to a 1991 edition of Guinness Book of World Records). The vehicle was a Winzen-Balloon with a volume of 1.35 million cubic metres, which was launched during October 1972 in Chico, California, USA.

During 2002 an ultra-thin-film balloon named BU60-1 made of polyethylene film 3.4 µm thick with a volume of 60,000 m³ was launched from Sanriku Balloon Center at Ofunato City, Iwate in Japan at 6:35 on May 23, 2002. The balloon ascended at a speed of 260 m per minute and successfully reached the altitude of 53.0 km (173,900 ft), breaking the previous world record set during 1972.^[6]

Gliders

The highest altitude obtained in an unpowered aircraft is 15,460 m (50,720 ft) on 30 August 2006 by Steve Fossett (pilot) and Einar Enevoldson (co-pilot) in their high performance research glider, a modified DG-500.^[7] This record was achieved over El Calafate ( Argentina) and set as part of the Perlan Project.^[8] The previous record was 49,009 ft (14,938 m) on February 17, 1986 by Robert Harris using lee waves over California City, USA.^[7]

Fixed-wing aircraft

Piston-driven propeller aeroplane

The highest altitude obtained by a piston-driven propeller UAV (without payload) is 67,028 feet (20,430 m). It was obtained during 1988–1989 by the Boeing Condor UAV.^[45]

The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller biplane (without a payload) was 17,083 m (56,047 ft) on October 22, 1938 by Mario Pezzi at Montecelio, Italy in a Caproni Ca.161 driven by a Piaggio XI R.C. engine.^[46]

The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller monoplane (without a payload) was 18,552 m (60,866 ft) on August 4, 1995 by the Grob Strato 2C driven by two Teledyne Continental TSIO-550 engines.

Jet aircraft

The highest current world absolute general aviation altitude record -General Aviation World Records- achieved by a manned Airbreathing jet engine propelled aircraft is 37,650 metres (123,520 ft) set by Alexandr Fedotov, in a Mikoyan Gurevitch E-266M (MiG-25M), on 31 August 1977.

Rocket plane

The highest altitude obtained by a manned aeroplane (launched from another aircraft) is 112,010 m (367,487 ft) by Brian Binnie in the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne (powered by a Scaled Composite SD-010 engine with 18,000 pounds (8,200 kg) of thrust) on 4 October 2004 at Mojave, CA. The SpaceShipOne was launched at over 43,500 ft (13.3 km).^[44] The previous (unofficial) record was 107,960 m (354,199 ft) set by Joseph A. Walker in a North American X-15 in mission X-15 Flight 91 on August 22, 1963. Walker had reached 106 km - crossing the Kármán line the first time - with X-15 Flight 90 the previous month.

The highest altitude obtained by a rocket-powered aircraft (self-launched—i.e. not launched from another aircraft) was 24,217 m (79,452 ft) on May 2, 1958 by Roger Carpentier over Istres, France in a Sud-Ouest Trident II mixed power (turbojet and rocket engine) aircraft.^[47]

Electrically powered aircraft

The highest altitude obtained by an electrically powered aircraft is 96,863 feet (29,524 m) on August 14, 2001 by the NASA Helios, and is the highest altitude in horizontal flight by a winged aircraft. This is also the altitude record for propeller driven aircraft, FAI class U (Experimental / New Technologies), and FAI class U-1.d (Remotely controlled UAV : Weight 500 kg to less than 2500 kg).^[48]

Rotorcraft

On June 21, 1972, Jean Boulet of France piloted an Aérospatiale Lama helicopter to an absolute altitude record of 40,814 feet (12,440 m).^[49] At the extreme altitude the engine flamed out and the helicopter had to be (safely) landed via another record breaker — the longest successful autorotation in history.^[50] The helicopter had been stripped of all unnecessary equipment prior to the flight to minimize its weight and the pilot was breathing supplemental oxygen.

World Altitude record by Helicopter – 42,500Ft About thirty years after the record set by Jean Boulet on a SA315 B “Lama” helicopter, Fred North, professional pilot, takes an AS 350 B2 “Squirrel” to the altitude of 12954 m.

Paper airplanes

The highest altitude obtained by a paper plane is currently for the Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) project, which was released at an altitude of 27,307 metres (89,590 ft), from a helium balloon that was launched approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Madrid, Spain on 28 October 2010, and recorded by The Register's "special projects bureau". The project achieved a Guinness world record recognition.^[51][52]

Cannon rounds

The current world-record for highest cannon projectile flight is held by Project HARP’s 16-inch space gun prototype, which fired a 180 kg Martlet 2 projectile to record height of 180 km (590,550 ft; 110 mi) in Yuma, Arizona, on November 18th, 1966. The projectile’s trajectory briefly sent it into space, making it the first cannon-fired projectile to exit the atmosphere.^[53]

The Paris Gun (German: Paris-Geschütz) was a German long-range siege gun used to bombard Paris during World War I. It was in service from March–August 1918. Its 106-kilogram shells had a range of about 130 km (80 mi) with a maximum altitude of about 42.3 km (26.3 mi).

See also

• High-altitude airship
• High-altitude balloon
• Fédération Aéronautique Internationale

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Andrews, C.F. and E.B. Morgan. Vickers Aircraft since 1908. London:Putnam, 1988. ISBN 0-85177-815-1.
• Angelucci, Enzo and Peter M. Bowers. The American Fighter. Sparkford, UK:Haynes Publishing Group, 1987. ISBN 0-85429-635-2.
• Bridgman, Leonard. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1951–52. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd, 1951.
• "Eighteen Years of World's Records". Flight, 7 February 1924, pp. 73–75.
• Lewis, Peter. British Racing and Record-Breaking Aircraft. London:Putnam, 1971. ISBN 0-370-00067-6.
• Owers, Colin. "Stop-Gap Fighter:The LUSAC Series". Air Enthusiast, Fifty, May to July 1993. Stamford, UK:Key Publishing. ISSN 0143-5450. pp. 49–51.
• Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1965–66. London:Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1965.
• "The Royal Aero Club of the U.K.: Official Notices to Members". Flight 16 December 1920.

External links

• Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Official website –the international, non-profit, non-government organization that tracks aircraft world records
• Balloon World Records Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
• Excelsior III Details of Kittingers' Jump from a stratospheric balloon in 1960
• Iowa State University – High Altitude Balloon Experiments in Technology
• Eng, Cassandra (1997). "Altitude of the Highest Manned Balloon Flight". The Physics Factbook.