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Helicopters

Eurocopter X3

Compound helicopter. Guinness records 255 knots (472 km/h) in level flight on 7 June 2013. It is not the FAI absolute helicopter record.

Also known as X3, Airbus X3
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Top speed

Published as 472 km/hPublished as 472 km/hPublished as 472 km/h

Compound helicopter, level flight at about 10,000 ft over southern France. Not FAI class E-Absolute. Guinness also prints 255 knots and 293 mph for this run.

VerifiedGuinness World Records (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 4.5× a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • 1.4 football fields a secondConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)
  • London to New York in 11 h 48 minConstant · London to New York, 5,570 km great-circle

Worked out from the sourced figure above, which stays the ranked number.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 472km/h293mph131m/s255knRanked figure

    Compound helicopter, level flight at about 10,000 ft over southern France. Not FAI class E-Absolute. Guinness also prints 255 knots and 293 mph for this run.

    Verified
    Guinness World Records (opens source in a new tab)Accessed

Reference

Specs

Class
Compound
Pilot
Hervé Jammayrac
Speed
472 km/h level flight
Date
7 June 2013

Context

Background

Guinness files this as a non-FAI helicopter speed: 255 knots (472 km/h; 293 mph) at 10,000 feet over southern France on 7 June 2013, flown by Hervé Jammayrac. Flying magazine and Vertical magazine's Eurocopter release both print 255 knots in level flight that day, and Vertical also prints 472 km/h. The ranked unit is kilometres per hour. The knot and mile figures are the same run.

A shallow-dive mark of 263 knots appears in those accounts and is not the ranked level-flight figure. The X3 is a compound: a slowed main rotor plus two propellers on short wings. It does not replace the Westland Lynx as the FAI E-Absolute record.

Checked 8 October 2026.

Head to head

Compare Eurocopter X3

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