What's the fastest passenger airplane? And how fast do passenger planes go, by the way? Ever since humanity took to the skies with the birds, we’ve been pushing our limits. We’ve built the biggest, the baddest, the fastest aircraft! But how do passenger aircraft rank among our most incredible record-breakers? Let’s see!

Well, the fastest crewed aircraft ever was the X-15. But it couldn’t take off by itself – a “mother ship” had to carry it up and drop-launch it from the sky. So, technically, the X-15 was a crewed rocket, not entirely an airplane. There was also the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, a supersonic jet with a top speed of almost 2,200 mph! But it went so fast, its surface would heat up well over 500°F. So what about regular passenger airplanes, the kind we all use to travel?

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