Flight altitude record

On February 17, 1986, The highest altitude obtained by a soaring aircraft was set at 14.938 km (49,009 ft) by Robert Harris using lee waves over California City, United States.

[12] This was surpassed at 15.46 km (50,720 ft) 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.

[13] This was raised at 15.902 km (52,172 ft) on September 3, 2017[14] by Jim Payne (pilot) and Morgan Sandercock (co-pilot) in the Perlan 2,[15] a special built high altitude research glider.

[59] The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller biplane (without a payload) was 17.083 km (56,050 ft) on October 22, 1938, by Mario Pezzi at Montecelio, Italy in a Caproni Ca.161 driven by a Piaggio XI R.C.

[60] The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller monoplane (without a payload) was 18.552 km (60,870 ft) on August 4, 1995, by the Grob Strato 2C driven by two Teledyne Continental TSIO-550 engines.

The highest current world absolute general aviation altitude record for air breathing jet-propelled aircraft is 37.650 kilometres (123,520 ft) set by Aleksandr Vasilyevich Fedotov in a Mikoyan-Gurevich E-266M (MiG-25M) on August 31, 1977.

[64] The unofficial altitude record for mixed-power-aircraft with self-powered takeoff was 36.8 km (120,800 ft) on December 6, 1963, by Major Robert W. Smith in a Lockheed NF-104A mixed power (turbojet and rocket engine) aircraft.

[66] On June 21, 1972, Jean Boulet of France piloted an Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama helicopter to an absolute altitude record of 12.440 kilometres (40,814 ft).

[69][70] 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.