Flight altitude record: Information and Much More from Answers.com

These are the records set for going the highest in the atmosphere from the age of ballooning onward. Some records are certified by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Airplanes

Year	Date	Altitude	Person	Aircraft	Power	Notes
imperial	metric
1903	December 17, 1903	3 ¼ ft	1 m	Wilbur Wright	Wright Flyer	propeller	Record uncertified. The Wrights made several more flights, with increasing altitude, in 1904 and 1905, none of which was witnessed by an official body.
1906	October 23, 1906	10 ft	3 m	Alberto Santos-Dumont	14-bis	propeller	First officially witnessed and certified flight.
1906	November 12, 1906	13 ft	4 m	Alberto Santos-Dumont	14-bis	propeller
1908	December 18, 1908	360 ft	110 m	Wilbur Wright	Biplane	propeller	at Auovors
1909	July 1909	492 ft	150 m	Louis Paulhan	Farman	propeller	Douai Air Show
1909		3,018 ft	920 m	Louis Paulhan	Farman	propeller	Lyon
1910	January 9, 1910	4,164 ft	1,269 m	Louis Paulhan	Farman	propeller	Los Angeles air meet [1]
1910	June 17, 1910	4,603 ft	1,403 m	Walter Brookins	Wright biplane	propeller	Washington Post; June 18, 1910; Indianapolis, Indiana, June 17, 1910. Walter Brookins, in a Wright biplane, broke the world's aeroplane record for altitude today, when he soared to a height of 4,603 feet, according to the measurement of the altimeter. His motor stopped as he was descending, and he made a glide of 2 miles, landing easily in a wheat field.
1910	October 30, 1910	8,471 ft	2,582 m	Ralph Johnstone	Wright biplane	propeller	International Aviation Tournament was at the Belmont Park race track in Elmont, New York [2]
52 years of records go here.
1962	17 July, 1962	60 mi	95.94 km	Robert Michael White	X-15	rocket plane
1963	19 July, 1963	66 mi	106.01 km	Joseph Albert Walker	X-15	rocket plane
1963	22 August, 1963	67 mi	107.96 km	Joseph Albert Walker	X-15	rocket plane
2004	4 October, 2004	69 1/2 mi	111.99 km	Brian Binnie	SpaceShipOne	rocket plane

All balloons

• 1783 — August — 24 m Jean Francois Pilatre in a hot-air balloon.
• 1783 — 1 December, 1783 — 610 m Professor Charles and assistant Robert in Charliere, his hydrogen-filled balloon.
• 1783 — 1 December, 1783 — 2.7 km Professor Charles in Charliere, his hydrogen-filled balloon.
• 1784 — 4 km Pilâtre de Rozier and the chemist Proust in a Montgolfier.
• 1803 — 18 July, 1803 — 7.28 km Etienne Gaspar Robertson and Lhoest in a balloon.
• 1839 — 7.9 km Charles Green and Spencer Rush in a free balloon.
• 1862 — 5 September, 1862 — 11.887 km — Coxwell and English physicist Glaisher in a balloon.
• 1927 — November 1927 — 13.222 km — Captain Hawthorne C. Gray of the US Army Air Corps. in a balloon.
• 1931 — 27 May, 1931 — 15.787 km — Auguste Piccard & Paul Kipfer in a hydrogen balloon.
• 1932 — 16.2 km — Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns in a hydrogen balloon.
• 1933 30 September — 18.501 km USSR balloon.
• 1933 —20 November — 18.592 km Lt. Comdr. T. G. W. Settle (USN) and Maj Chester L. Fordney (USMC) in Century of Progress balloon
• 1934 — 30 January — 21.946 km USSR balloon.
• 1935 — 10 November — 22.066 km Anderson and Stevens in Explorer II.
• 1960 — 16 August — Joseph Kittinger parachutes from Excelsior III over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,333 m). He sets unbeaten (as of 2005) world records for: high-altitude jump; free-fall by falling 16 miles (25.7 km) before opening his parachute; and fastest speed by a human without motorized assistance, 614 mph (982 km/h).
• 1961 — 4 May — 34.668 km; Victor Prather and Malcolm Ross (balloonist) of the US Navy in Strato-Lab V, a zero-pressure balloon (Prather drowned during recovery).

Hot air balloons

Year	Date	Altitude	Person	Aircraft	Notes
imperial	metric
2004	December 13, 2004	4.1 mi	6.614 km	David Hempleman-Adams	Boland Rover A-2	Fédération Aéronautique Internationale record for hot air balloon as of 2007
1783	15 October, 1783	0.016 mi	26 m	Pilâtre de Rozier	Montgolfier	tethered balloon

Gliders

The highest altitude obtained in an unpowered aeroplane is 50,699 feet (15,453 m) on 30th August 2006 by Steve Fossett (pilot) and Einar Enevoldson (co-pilot) in their high performance research glider, breaking the previous record by 1,662 ft (507m). This record was set as part of the Perlan Project. The previous record was 49,009 feet (14,938 metres) on February 17, 1986 by Robert Harris in lee waves over California City, USA.

See also

• Fédération Aéronautique Internationale

References

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