An Helicopter is the slowest means of air transport, What is the fastest ?

Question

There are different types of transport means used in air and there is need to know the fastest.

Answer 1

I BELIEVE "transport" as in powered, steerable flight, is what the Questioner meant. You can't "steer" a hot air balloon to any destination for transport. Slowest would probably be a small Ultralight aircraft, which are legally bound to stay under 55 mph. I think they can out-slow a blimp. :) Fastest would probably be the SR-71 Blackbird, while military, can do at least Mach 3. Not much on transporting goods and services, but can "haul the freight" for camera work, I suppose.  :)

  I'm not quite sure how a helicopter is "slowest", as you ( the Questioner) might be mistaking hovering for slow. Being that "slowest" has nothing to do with deliberately not using the throttle to move forward. That's like not using the accelerator pedal in a Ferrari  and saying its "slower" than a Kia. The helicopter can move quite fast, so simply NOT going faster does NOT make it slower. Only it's design limitations can qualify it for that. Like I said, an Ultralight aircraft is probably one of the slowest, there's also the powered parachutes, which can transport 2 people, and probably no faster than 35 mph in level flight. So that may qualify ahead of the UL aircraft, if you chose to include it. I would, as it IS a flying machine and can transport you somewhere. Since a rocket can travel thru air, you might want to include that as the fastest, though finding one to take off and land is a problem ( Spaceship One of Burt Ruritan?, is a likely candidate, as it managed to take off and land rather quickly. Probably way above Mach 3. So, for a take-off and landing, I'd qualify that next to the shuttle. :)

The Gremlin Guy

Answer 2

Once an aircraft breaks the sound barrier all of the aerodynamics and fuel consumption that applied to that aircraft before Mach 1 goes right out the window. It's extremely inefficient and expensive to break the sound barrier thus why the military are the only ones that do it and the concorde failed.

However up to that point the faster you go the more efficient your aircraft becomes, so most airliers will try to get as close to the speed of sound as possible, anywhere from Mach 0.86 to 0.94 are pretty common cruising speeds. This would be your fastest means of civilian travel in an aircraft.

Answer 3

I've seen balloons go a lot slower than helicopters.  Hang gliders can't go as fast as helicopters either.

If you're talking about transporting normal civilians, then the Concorde would be the fastest, but it's not in use anymore.

However, there are military aircraft that can go faster than that.

Answer 4

Actually the slowest means of flying is tying balloons to your lawn chair and flying, doesn't get slower than that,as for fastest civilian aircraft, probably Concorde,fastest manned aircraft Sr-71 fastest unmanned probably the X-15.

Answer 5

You mean aircraft that are not locked up at Area 51?

Probably military bombers

Answer 6

A space shuttle

Answer 7

Probably an airplane

Answer 8

Your average space shuttle.

The space shuttle qualifies as an aircraft, as it glides back to earth.

There is research going on for extremely fast hypersonic passenger aircraft, but nothing commercially feasible yet.definite yet.

The Concorde was the fastest passenger aircraft.

The Boeing 727 may still be the fastest commercial airliner. It certainly used to be.

Answer 9

Isnt a blimp slower than a helicopter

Answer 10

If your talking military, then supersonic. (Fighter jets, etc.)

Commercial will be passenger jets (Speeds will vary here)

Answer 11

Airship is slower. Space shuttle fastest.

Answer 12

thats not true helicopters can be very quick some are faster then small airplanes. the slowest would be a hotair balloon. the fastest would be a rocket or for you a plane.

Answer 13

Fastest is a rocket