Mach 2 - Rarely done, always trouble?

This is what I want for my A2A interceptor UCAV.

To this very day, the Six is officially the fastest single-engine airplane ever built. It was the last single-engined jet to hold the record. Every official speed record since has been set by multi-engined fighters/SRs. I'm not saying that a Six would outrun an F-104 in an out-and-out race, but OFFICALLY it is and probably forever will be the fastest single out there. Think about this: the Six that had been tweaked and groomed for the speed run had problems with its variable intake system (endemic on F-106s, I might add...) and they made the speed run using a backup ungroomed jet. Truly a run-of-the-mill line jet!

To this very day, the Six is officially the fastest single-engine airplane ever built. It was the last single-engined jet to hold the record. Every official speed record since has been set by multi-engined fighters/SRs. I'm not saying that a Six would outrun an F-104 in an out-and-out race, but OFFICALLY it is and probably forever will be the fastest single out there. Think about this: the Six that had been tweaked and groomed for the speed run had problems with its variable intake system (endemic on F-106s, I might add...) and they made the speed run using a backup ungroomed jet. Truly a run-of-the-mill line jet!

Technically it would be the Ye-152 which took the speed record from the F-4 but it was a prototype. There are several other single engine aircraft that would be interesting to see exactly how fast they could have went with the stops out. F-107 and XF8U-3 would probably both do 2.5+

http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/mig_e-152p.php

I honestly would not have expected the Zipper to out turn the -5. I guess I still have much to learn about the speedy little demon.

If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on the XF8U-3. That sumbitch was just plain FAST!! I read somewhere that the max mach on that jet was limited by, of all things, windshield meltdown. I can only imagine how fast you'd have to go to get that much heat in your windshield.

P.S. all of these american jets (F-105, F-106, F-107 and XF8U-3) used some variation of the J-75. You could make a strong case that the F-105 was probably the fastest airplane ever at low level.

If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on the XF8U-3. That sumbitch was just plain FAST!! I read somewhere that the max mach on that jet was limited by, of all things, windshield meltdown. I can only imagine how fast you'd have to go to get that much heat in your windshield.

To paraphrase one of the test pilots in an article in Airtime Publishing's "Classic Wings": "the manufacturer said the windscreen would fog 20 seconds before it failed and I spent a lot of time watching for a foggy windscreen".

The J75 was one He\\ of an engine!

Mach 2.05 can be done. I've seen it. I chased a guy that reached it. We were at 47,000 in AB ramping down. He hit 2.05 around 40,000 feet. It was a clean Viper and it RTB'd Code 1. Gotta love the Block 50.

The F-16 can hit 2.11

The J75 was one He\\ of an engine!

Yup - It was a great motor(P17 had a full length heat shield with little 3/8 " hex head bolts that like to strip every once in a while) (P19W rusted out its 1st turbine nozzle vanes about every 100 hours) But a full power, open trim pad run - SUBLIME or SUBLAM!!

The F-16 can hit 2.11

It'll go faster than that

Many years ago the F-16/J79 was flown to Mach 2.2 to demonstrate the capability and the flight limit was set at 2.2 for a period of time. Later simulation of maneuvering flight up to 2.2 revealed that excessive lateral acceleration would occur during loaded rolls and the possibility of vertical tail overload existed. The flight limit was subsequently reduced to Mach 2.05.

As told to me by a former F-16 Stability & Control engineer.

There it is. Mach 2 point zero in an F-16N (F-16D/TF-16N). What a cool video!

https://youtu.be/0IL3UoU9CbM

Clearly with a variable intake it could reach F-15 speeds. But it was built for affordability, not niche speed stunts.

I believe that the F-16/J79 intake had a fixed ramp design that can be optimized to a higher Mn than the normal shock design of the production F-16s. This made the J79 version the fastest F-16, even with the higher static thrust of the F100-200/220/229 and F110-100/129/132 engines. The pressure recovery of the normal shock intake goes down really fast above 1.6 Mn.