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FastestThings

Helicopters

Westland Lynx

FAI absolute helicopter record: 400.87 km/h on 11 August 1986 near Glastonbury, flown by John Trevor Egginton with Derek Clews in G-LYNX.

Also known as G-LYNX, Lynx AH.1
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Top speed

Published as 400.87 km/hPublished as 400.87 km/hPublished as 400.87 km/h

FAI class E-Absolute, record 11659, 15/25 km course near Glastonbury, Somerset. Pilot John Trevor Egginton, Derek Clews aboard, Westland Lynx G-LYNX.

OfficialGuinness World Records (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 3.8× a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • 1.2 football fields a secondConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)
  • London to New York in 13 h 54 minConstant · London to New York, 5,570 km great-circle

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

This list

Why it's so fast

A helicopter's top speed runs into the rotor. The blade going forward sees a much higher airspeed than the blade going backward, and that imbalance is the usual wall.

  1. Retreating blade

    As the aircraft speeds up, the retreating blade can lose lift and stall while the advancing blade is approaching its own limits. Conventional rotors run out of even lift before a jet would.

  2. How the record holders cheat

    Compound helicopters add a propeller or a wing so the rotor does not have to provide all of the forward thrust. The entry says which layout set the figure.

One record holder is the Westland Lynx.

This is how the category works. A note written for this entry appears here once it is in the database.

Provenance

Every measurement

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

  1. 400.87km/h249mph111m/s216knRanked figure

    FAI class E-Absolute, record 11659, 15/25 km course near Glastonbury, Somerset. Pilot John Trevor Egginton, Derek Clews aboard, Westland Lynx G-LYNX.

    Official
    Guinness World Records (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Registration
G-LYNX
Pilot
John Trevor Egginton
Flight-test engineer
Derek Clews
FAI record
11659, class E-Absolute

Context

Background

Guinness, the FAI's own anniversary note, and the Helicopter Museum all print 400.87 km/h for the Westland Lynx demonstrator G-LYNX on 11 August 1986. The pilot is John Trevor Egginton. Guinness names Derek J. Clews as co-pilot. The course is near Glastonbury in Somerset.

The Vertical Flight Society page names the same 400.87 km/h figure and FAI record 11659 in class E-Absolute. A rounded 216-knot line on that page is not stored. The Lynx remains the FAI absolute record for a conventional helicopter. The compound X2 and X3 are separate rows on this list, labeled as compounds.

Head to head

Compare Westland Lynx

Open the speed race

Spot a wrong number?

Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.