Two of the most popular questions, at least for pilots and other students of aviation history, are: What are the top 10 planes of all time, and which one’s the greatest of them all?
At first glance, it seems a silly idea that you could even come up with an answer. After all, planes come in so many different shapes and sizes, with an equal number of mission types to match. How could you possibly choose just one?
This is how.
We started with a group of really great airplanes, or at least we tried to. We started with 10 of them before deciding, as they did in Spinal Tap, to make this one go all the way up to 11. We thought of consciously working to make it a cross-section of aircraft types, but that happened automatically.
But looking at the different kinds of mission types, i.e., training, personal transportation, commercial transportation, fighters, bombers, reconnaissance and more, we decided to narrow things down even more by asking ourselves if there were a top dog among those planes. Surprisingly, the answer to that question was often an unequivocal, “Yes!” Who knew?
Before you begin, consider these bizarre facts about the most outrageous top 10 list of planes you’ll ever see. For starters, there are only two non-American planes on the list. There are five planes that are advertised as supersonic, one other that might have gotten there, four with propellers, three with rocket motors, eight that are no longer being produced, and one that was first built in 1956 and is still in production today.
Finally, after our Greatest Airplanes Of All Time, we present 25 others that a lot of you will argue belong on the main list. In many cases, you’d have a strong argument. Enjoy!
North American X-15
Itâs impossible not to include on this list the fastest and highest-flying plane of all time, though there were two things about it that we werenât crazy about: It didnât take off by itself, and it was a glider for most of its trip. The North American X-15, as was the case for the Bell X-1, which was the first supersonic airplane, was launched by a mother ship. The X-15âs boost was courtesy of a Boeing B-52 specially outfitted to carry the X-15 aloft. But apart from that, this thing is mind-bogglingly awesome. It holds the record for the fastest aircraftâin fact, it holds all 199 top spots. In climb, it was faster than the next-fastest plane ever, the SR71, was in level flight. It was also the highest-flying plane ever, with a ceiling of better than 350,000 feet. Several of its dozen pilots earned astronaut wings for their flights. After the X-15 ran out of fuel, it became, like the Space Shuttle, a really bad glider. Landings were made on Rogers Dry Lake on skids at about 200 mph. Its pilots call the X-15 the most challenging and rewarding plane they ever flew.
Margin of error: Zero. Contenders: Youâre joking, right?