What is the highest altitude a piloted plane has been?

Question

I read the F15 got to 100,000 feet and the SR71 flew at 90-100,000 feet. The rocket powered X15 got to 295,000 feet although a different plane. How cool would the curvature of the earth look at these extreme altitudes? The SR71 pilots could see the stars twinkling above them....Awesome. Appreciate any responses.

Answer 1

Even the F104 climbed to over 100k feet.

This is for the moron who gives thumbs downs because he/she is residing on the left side of the bell curve.

http://www.batnet.com/~mfwright/nf104.ht...

Answer 2

The F-15's operational ceiling is 65,000ft, while the SR-71 maxed out just over 85,000ft.

If you consider 'SpaceShipOne' a plane (they call it a 'spaceplane'), then it holds the record at 367,000ft.  Otherwise, it's the X-15 at 351,000ft.

Answer 3

The guy in the Moon Orbiter on the "Other" side of the moon during the Apollo Missions.

Answer 4

well there's also the space shuttle, if you count the X15, I guess you also gotta count the space shuttle, because X15 pilots earned astronaut wings afterward

when the space shuttle comes back, it is a piloted glider so I guess it falls into your category of piloted plane. I mean, its piloted, has wings, and everything else a typical aircraft has except the engine.

it orbits between 1 055 999 feet (2miles) and 1 583 999 feet (300 miles)  

there also the MiG-25 codenamed Foxbat by NATO. it was caught on radar once traveling at Mach 3.2 and another time for record altitude attempt, it reached  an altitude of 123 523 feet  (http://www.lightning.org.uk/archive/0307...

f-15 has achieved 100,250 feet. for the fact (http://www.lightning.org.uk/archive/0307...

also found at Jane's)

earth curvature is visible at 100,250 feet. sky is dark and you can see atmospheric glow.

also the SR71 has been to at least 100,000 feet before when in service with NASA but this is still unconfirmed. SR71 holds the record for highest maintainable altitude of 85,069 feet. the aircraft aircraft like the f15 and mig25 can reach higher altitude but cannot stay there. the SR71 operates there. At 85,000 feet, the SR71 is in its best performance envelope.