| Re: Highest Absolute Ceiling |
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Group: aus.aviation · Group Profile
Author: Stephen JamesStephen James Date: Jul 12, 2008 22:20
On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:25:36 +1000, David Findlay
davsoft.com.au> wrote:
>Can anyone tell me what the highest absolute ceiling of production aircraft
>is? I know the Lockheed U-2 could go to 70000ft, but I'm pretty sure I've
>seen somewhere that some Russian fighters can go to 60000ft. The service
>ceiling I've seen quoted online is 50000ft though. Anyone have better
>figures? I'm taking it that the fighters can do climbs to extremely high
>altitudes but only in an arc where they climb up and fall back down.
>
>Thanks,
>
>David
For sustained flight, the SR-71 Blackbird could cruise at 85,000+
feet.
That record was set many years ago (1976 AFAIK) and may have been
eclipsed by now.
Likewise the SR-71 Blackbird also held the absolute speed record of
1906 knots (2,193 mph, 3,530 km/h) at that time.
It was suspected that the SR-71 could go considerably higher and maybe
faster but due to "security issues" its true performance was
concealed.
There were many stories, mostly anecdotal, that the SR-71 was capable
of out running most SAMs in use at the time the SR-71 was operational.
Regards
Stephen
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