Apart from the A-11/SR-71 family, the MiG-25 Foxbat, and the XB-70 Valkyrie, what are the world's fastest air-breathing jets that have either flown or at least been on a drawing board?
X-43 is the current fastest reaching M9.68 with a scramjet.
The UK had the BS.1010 pushing ramjet technology and hydrocarbon fuel out to Mach 7. The fastest design postulated was the APD.1019H2 which was a flying wedge scramjet (vertical landing as well) supposed to get up to Mach 10 with a crew of three. More sensible were the Hawker P.1134 studies looking at Mach 4+ with a combined reheated Avon / ramjet powerplant and crew of two.
It becomes fairly academic for those sorts of aircraft as redline speed simply depends on what heating loads you're dealing with are where the designers feel the limit is. For MiG-31 it's around M2.8 with others at reduced limits depending on how much aluminium you want to use in the structure.
F-111 is going to be caught fairly easily with a missile shot, which is the main reason speeds have decreased. It's easier and cheaper to design a fast missile than a fast aircraft.
F-111 is going to be caught fairly easily with a missile shot, which is the main reason speeds have decreased. It's easier and cheaper to design a fast missile than a fast aircraft.
That's a tall order. I even remember a nuclear powered US bomber that was proposed in the 1950s that was supposed to be Mach 3-4 capable and had a... wait for it... battlefield bonus of spewing nuclear radiation as exhaust over the target country.
...a nuclear powered US bomber that was proposed in the 1950s that was supposed to be Mach 3-4 capable and had a... wait for it... battlefield bonus of spewing nuclear radiation as exhaust over the target country
As I recall it had conventional jet turbine propulsion and only the dash capability was the dreaded radiation spewing nuclear propulsion. Stupid idea. But then again there are so many.
Fastest air breathing jet gets heavily involved with spaceplanes. Fastest pretty much comes down to a spaceplane design that isn't designed to go into space. Some strange examples would be HOTOL or SKYLON. Air breathing engines but space capable.