Flight altitude record

File:Historic weather balloon "Explorer II." Lake Andes NWR, South Dakota. - NARA - 283836.jpg

Explorer II gondola, 1935

This listing of flight altitude records are the records set for the highest aeronautical flights conducted in the atmosphere and beyond, 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.

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).

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

Balloons

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-11505, Vorbereitung für Stratosphären-Flug.jpg

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: ; Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier of France, the first ascent in a hot-air balloon.
• 1783-10-19: ; Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, in Paris.
• 1783-10-19: ; Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier with André Giroud de Villette, in Paris.
• 1783-11-21: ; Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier with Marquis d'Arlandes, in Paris.
• 1783-12-01: ; Jacques Alexandre Charles and his assistant Marie-Noël Robert, both of France, made the first flight in a hydrogen balloon to about Template:Cvt. Charles then ascended alone to the record altitude.
• 1784-06-23: ; Pilâtre de Rozier and the chemist Joseph Proust in a Montgolfier.
• 1803-07-18: ; Étienne-Gaspard Robert and Auguste Lhoëst in a balloon.
• 1839: ; Charles Green and Spencer Rush in a free balloon.
• 1862-09-05: about ; Henry Coxwell and James Glaisher in a balloon filled with coal gas. Glaisher lost consciousness during the ascent due to the low air pressure and cold temperature of .
• 1901-07-31: ; Arthur Berson and Reinhard Süring in the hydrogen balloon Preußen, in an open basket and with oxygen in steel cylinders. This flight contributed to the discovery of the stratosphere.
• 1927-11-04: ; Captain Hawthorne C. Gray, of the U.S. Army Air Corps, in a helium balloon. Gray lost consciousness after his oxygen supply ran out and was killed in the crash.
• 1931-05-27: ; Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer in a hydrogen balloon.
• 1932: -Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns in a hydrogen balloon.
• 1933-09-30: ; USSR balloon USSR-1.
• 1933-11-20: ; Lt. Comdr. Thomas G. W. Settle (USN) and Maj Chester L. Fordney (USMC) in Century of Progress balloon
• 1934-01-30: ; USSR balloon Osoaviakhim-1. The three crew were killed when the balloon broke up during the descent.
• 1935-11-10: ; Captain O. A. Anderson and Captain A. W. Stevens (U.S. 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 .
• 1956-11-08: ; Malcolm D. Ross and M. L. Lewis (U.S. Navy) in Office of Naval Research Strato-Lab I, using a pressurized gondola and plastic balloon launching near Rapid City, South Dakota, and landing away near Kennedy, Nebraska.
• 1957-06-02: ; Captain Joseph W. Kittinger (U.S. Air Force) ascended in the Project Manhigh 1 gondola to a record-breaking altitude.
• 1957-08-19: ; above sea level, Major David Simons (U.S. 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 p.m. on August 20 in northeastern South Dakota.
• 1960-08-16: ; Testing a high-altitude parachute system, Joseph Kittinger of the U.S. Air Force parachuted from the Excelsior III balloon over New Mexico at . He set world records for: high-altitude jump; freefall diving by falling before opening his parachute; and fastest speed achieved by a human without motorized assistance, .
• 1961-05-04: ; Commander Malcolm D. Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather, Jr., of the U.S. Navy ascended in the Strato-Lab V, in 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 gulf and drowned.Template:Efn
• 1966-02-02: ; Amateur parachutist Nicholas Piantanida of the United States with his "Project Strato-Jump" II balloon. Because he was unable to disconnect his oxygen line from the gondola's main feed, the ground crew had to remotely detach the balloon from the gondola. His planned free fall and parachute jump was abandoned, and he returned to the ground in the gondola. Nick was unable to accomplish his desired free fall record, however his spectacular flight set other records that held up for 46 years. Because of the design of his glove, he was unable to reattach his safety seat belt harness. He endured very high g-forces, but survived the descent. Piantanida's ascent is not recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as a balloon altitude world record, because he did not return with his balloon, although that was not the feat he was trying to accomplish. On this second attempt of "Project Strato-Jump", Nick Piantanida took with him 250 postmarked air-mail envelopes and letters. At the time, these letters were the first covers to have ever been delivered by the U.S. Post Office via space. The habit of taking cover letters to space continued with the Apollo Program; in 1972 there was a scandal involving the Apollo 15 astronauts. It is unclear if any of the "Project Strato-Jump" covers survived, and were eventually mailed to the intended recipients.
• 2012-10-14: ; Felix Baumgartner in the Red Bull Stratos balloon. The flight started near Roswell, New Mexico, and returned to earth via a record-setting parachute jump.
• 2014-10-24: ; Alan Eustace, a senior vice president at the Google corporation, in a helium balloon, returning to earth via parachute jump during the StratEx mission executed by Paragon Space Development Corporation.

Hot-air balloons

Year	Date	Altitude		Person	Aircraft	Notes
		imperial	metric
1783	October 15		Pilâtre de Rozier	Montgolfier	tethered balloon
1988	June 6		Per Lindstrand	Colt 600	In Laredo, Texas.
2004	December 13		David Hempleman-Adams	Boland Rover A-2	Fédération Aéronautique Internationale record for hot air balloon since 2007Template:Dated maintenance category (articles)
2005	November 26		Vijaypat Singhania	Cameron Z-1600	Vijaypat Singhania set the world altitude record for hot-air-balloon flight, reaching . He launched from downtown Mumbai, India, and landed south in Panchale.

Uncrewed gas balloon

During 1893 French scientist Jules Richard constructed sounding balloons. These uncrewed balloons, carrying light, but very precise instruments, approached an altitude of .

A Winzen balloon launched from Chico, California, in 1972 set the uncrewed altitude record of . Its volume was .

On September 20, 2013, JAXA launched an ultrathin film balloon called BS13-08 made of 2.8 μm thick polyethylene film with a volume of Template:Cvt, which was Template:Cvt in diameter. The balloon rose at a speed of and reached an altitude of Template:Cvt, surpassing the previous world record set in 2002.

This was the greatest height a flying object reached without using rockets or a launch with a cannon.

Gliders

On February 17, 1986, the highest altitude obtained by a soaring aircraft was set at by Robert Harris using lee waves over California City, United States. The flight was accomplished using the Grob 102 Standard Astir III.

This was surpassed at set on August 30, 2006, by Steve Fossett (pilot) and Einar Enevoldson (co-pilot) in their high performance research glider Perlan 1, a modified Glaser-Dirks DG-500. This record was achieved over El Calafate (Patagonia, Argentina) and set as part of the Perlan Project.

This was raised at on September 3, 2017 by Jim Payne (pilot) and Morgan Sandercock (co-pilot) in the Perlan 2, a special built high altitude research glider. This record was again achieved over El Calafate and as part of the Perlan Project.

On September 2, 2018, within the Airbus Perlan Mission II, again from El Calafate, the Perlan II piloted by Jim Payne and Tim Gardner reached Template:Cvt, surpassing the Template:Cvt attained by Jerry Hoyt on April 17, 1989, in a Lockheed U-2: the highest subsonic flight.

Fixed-wing aircraft

Year	Date	Altitude		Person	Aircraft	Propulsion	Notes
		Imperial	Metric
1890	October 8	8 in	0.2 m	Clément Ader	Éole	propeller	Uncontrolled hop
1903	December 17	10 ft	3 m	Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright	Wright Flyer	propeller	Photographed and witnessed unofficially.
1906	October 23		Alberto Santos-Dumont	14-bis	propeller	First officially witnessed and certified flight.
1906	November 12		Alberto Santos-Dumont	14-bis	propeller
1908	December 18		Wilbur Wright	Biplane	propeller	at Auvers
1909	July 18		Louis Paulhan	Farman	propeller	Concours d’Aviation, La Brayelle, Douai
1909			Louis Paulhan	Farman	propeller	Lyon
1910	January 9		Louis Paulhan	Farman	propeller	Los Angeles Air Meet
1910	June 17		Walter Brookins	Wright biplane	propeller
1910	August 11		John Armstrong Drexel	Blériot monoplane	propeller	Lanark Aviation Meeting
1910	October 30		Ralph Johnstone	Wright biplane	propeller	International Aviation Tournament was at the Belmont Park race track in Elmont, New York
1910	December 26		Archibald Hoxsey	Wright Model B	propeller	Second International Aviation Meet held in 1910 at Dominguez Field, Los Angeles. Hoxsey died in a plane crash five days later while trying to set a new record.
1912	September 11		Roland Garros	Template:Cnspan	propeller	Saint-Brieuc (France)
1915	January 5		Joseph Eugene Carberry	Curtiss Model E	propeller
1916	November 9		Guido Guidi	Caudron G.4	propeller	Torino Mirafiori airfield
1919	June 14		Jean Casale	Nieuport NiD.29	propeller
1920	February 27		Major Rudolf Schroeder	LUSAC-11	propeller
1921	September 18		Lt. John Arthur Macready	LUSAC-11	propeller
1923	September 5		Joseph Sadi-Lecointe	Nieuport NiD.40R	propeller
1923	October 30		Joseph Sadi-Lecointe	Nieuport NiD.40R	propeller
1924	October 21		Jean Callizo	Gourdou-Leseurre 40 C.1	propeller	Callizo later claimed several higher records, but these were stripped from him, as he had falsified barograph readings.
1928	December 7	20,269 ft	6,178 m	Louise Thaden	Travel Air 3000	propeller	Woman's altitude record
1930	June 4		Lt. Apollo Soucek, USN	Wright Apache	propeller
1932	September 16		Cyril Uwins	Vickers Vespa	propeller
1933	September 28		Gustave Lemoine	Potez 506	propeller
1934	April 11		Renato Donati	Caproni Ca.113 AQ	propeller
1936	August 14		Georges Détré	Potez 506	propeller	highest with no pressure suit
1936	September 28		Squadron Leader Francis Ronald Swain	Bristol Type 138	propeller
1938	June 30		M. J. Adam	Bristol Type 138	propeller
1938	October 22		Lt. Colonel Mario Pezzi	Caproni Ca.161	propeller	current crewed, propeller-driven, biplane record
1948	March 23		John Cunningham	de Havilland Vampire	turbojet	Modified Vampire F.1 with extended wingtips and a de Havilland Ghost jet engine.
1949	August 8		Brigadier General Frank Kendall Everest Jr.	Bell X-1	air-launched rocket plane	Unofficial record.
1951	August 15		Bill Bridgeman	Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket	air-launched rocket plane	Unofficial record. Powered by the XLR11 liquid fuel rocket engine (designated as XLR8-RM-5).
1953	May 4		Walter Gibb	English Electric Canberra B.2	turbojet	propelled by two Rolls-Royce Olympus engines.
1953	August 21		Lt. Col. Marion Carl	Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket	air-launched rocket plane	Unofficial record. Powered by the XLR11 liquid fuel rocket engine (designated as XLR8-RM-5).
1954	May 28		Arthur W. Murray	Bell X-1A	air-launched rocket plane	Unofficial record. Powered by the XLR11 liquid fuel rocket engine.
1955	August 29		Walter Gibb	English Electric Canberra B.2	turbojet	Olympus powered.
1956	September 7		Iven Kincheloe	Bell X-2	air-launched rocket plane
1957	August 28		Mike Randrup	English Electric Canberra WK163	turbojet & rocket	With Napier "Double Scorpion" rocket motor
1958	April 18		Lt. Commander George C. Watkins, USN	Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger	turbojet
1958	May 2		Roger Carpentier	SNCASO Trident II	turbojet & rocket
1958	May 7		Major Howard C. Johnson	Lockheed F-104 Starfighter	turbojet	This F-104 became the first aircraft to simultaneously hold the world speed, rate of climb and altitude records when on May 16, 1958, U.S. Air Force Capt. Walter W. Irwin set a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph
1959	September 4		Vladimir Ilyushin	Sukhoi Su-9	turbojet
1959	December 6		Commander Lawrence E. Flint, Jr.	McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II	turbojet
1959	December 14		Capt "Joe" B. Jordan	Lockheed F-104 Starfighter	turbojet	General Electric J79
1961	March 30		Joseph Albert Walker	X-15	air-launched rocket plane	First human to reach the mesosphere. Last world altitude record before Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight Vostok 1.
1961	April 28		Georgy Mosolov	Ye-66A Mig-21	turbojet & rocket	R-11
1962	July 17		Robert Michael White	X-15	air-launched rocket plane	Not a C-1 FAI record
1963	July 19		Joseph Albert Walker	X-15	air-launched rocket plane	Not a C-1 FAI record.
1963	August 22		Joseph Albert Walker	X-15	air-launched rocket plane	Not a C-1 FAI record
1963	October 22		Major Robert W. Smith	Lockheed NF-104A	turbojet & rocket	Unofficial altitude record for an aircraft with self-powered takeoff.
1963	December 6		Major Robert W. Smith	Lockheed NF-104A	turbojet & rocket	Unofficial altitude record for an aircraft with self-powered takeoff.
1973	July 25		Aleksandr Fedotov	Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-266 MiG-25	turbojet	Under Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) classification the Ye-155 type
1976	July 28		Captain Robert Helt	Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird	turbojet	Absolute record for altitude in horizontal flight. Pratt & Whitney J58; Absolute Record of FAI classes C, H and M Another SR-71 set absolute speed record on the same day.
1977	August 31		Aleksandr Fedotov	Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-266M MiG-25	turbojet	Under Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) classification the Ye-155 type
1995	August 4		2 pilots: Einar Enevoldson and other, and two scientists	Grob Strato 2C	propeller	crewed propeller monoplane record to date
2001	August 14		Uncrewed	NASA Helios HP01	propeller	Set altitude records for propeller driven aircraft, solar-electric aircraft, and highest altitude in horizontal flight by a winged aircraft.
2004	October 4		Brian Binnie	SpaceShipOne	air-launched rocket plane	In addition to the altitude record, this flight also set records for greatest mass lifted to altitude and minimum time between two consecutive flights in a reusable vehicle.

Piston-driven propeller aeroplane

The highest altitude obtained by a piston-driven propeller UAV (without payload) is . It was obtained during 1988–1989 by the Boeing Condor UAV.

The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller biplane (without a payload) was on October 22, 1938, by Mario Pezzi at Montecelio, Italy in a Caproni Ca.161 driven by a Piaggio XI R.C. engine.

The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller monoplane (without a payload) was 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 for air breathing jet-propelled aircraft is set by Aleksandr Vasilyevich Fedotov in a Mikoyan-Gurevich E-266M (MiG-25M) on August 31, 1977.

Rocket plane

The record for highest altitude obtained by a crewed rocket-powered aircraft is the US Space Shuttle (STS) which regularly reached altitudes of more than on servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The highest altitude obtained by a crewed aeroplane (launched from another aircraft) is by Brian Binnie in the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne (powered by a Scaled Composite SD-010 engine with of thrust) on October 4, 2004, at Mojave, California. The SpaceShipOne was launched at over Template:Cvt.

The previous (unofficial) record was 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.

During the X-15 program, 8 pilots flew a combined 13 flights which met the Air Force spaceflight criterion by exceeding the altitude of , qualifying these pilots as being astronauts; of those 13 flights, two (flown by the same civilian pilot) met the FAI definition of outer space: .

Mixed power

The official record for a mixed power aircraft was achieved on May 2, 1958, by Roger Carpentier when he reached over Istres, France in a Sud-Ouest Trident II mixed power (turbojet & rocket engine) aircraft.

The unofficial altitude record for mixed-power-aircraft with self-powered takeoff was on December 6, 1963, by Major Robert W. Smith in a Lockheed NF-104A mixed power (turbojet and rocket engine) aircraft.

Electrically powered aircraft

The highest altitude obtained by an electrically powered aircraft is 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 Template:Cvt).

Rotorcraft

On June 21, 1972, Jean Boulet of France piloted an Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama helicopter to an absolute altitude record of . At that extreme altitude, the engine flamed out and Boulet had to land the helicopter by breaking another record: the longest successful autorotation in history. The helicopter was stripped of all unnecessary equipment prior to the flight to minimize weight, and the pilot breathed supplemental oxygen.

Paper airplanes

The highest altitude obtained by a paper plane was previously held by the Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) project, which was released at an altitude of , from a helium balloon that was launched approximately west of Madrid, Spain on October 28, 2010, and recorded by The Register's "special projects bureau". The project achieved a Guinness world record recognition.

This record was broken on 24 June 2015 in Cambridgeshire, UK by the Space Club of Kesgrave High School, Suffolk, as part of their Stratos III project. The paper plane was launched from a balloon at .

Cannon rounds

The current world-record for highest cannon projectile flight is held by Project HARP’s Template:Cvt space gun prototype, which fired a Template:Cvt Martlet 2 projectile to a record height of in Yuma, Arizona, on November 18, 1966. The projectile’s trajectory sent it beyond the Kármán line at Template:Cvt, making it the first cannon-fired projectile to do so.

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 shells had a range of about with a maximum altitude of about .

See also

• Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
• High-altitude balloon
• High-altitude military parachuting
• High-altitude platform station

Bibliography

• Andrews, C.F. and E.B. Morgan. Vickers Aircraft since 1908. London:Putnam, 1988. Template:ISBN.
• Angelucci, Enzo and Peter M. Bowers. The American Fighter. Sparkford, UK:Haynes Publishing Group, 1987. Template:ISBN.
• 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, February 7, 1924, pp. 73–75.
• Lewis, Peter. British Racing and Record-Breaking Aircraft. London:Putnam, 1971. Template:ISBN.
• 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 December 16, 1920.

External links

• Fédération Aéronautique Internationale –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