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FastestThings

Military Jets

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25

Published maximum of 3,000 km/h at high altitude. This is the service limit in the specifications, not an FAI absolute record.

Also known as MiG-25, Foxbat
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Top speed

Published as 3,000 km/hPublished as 3,000 km/hPublished as 3,000 km/hPublished as 3,000 km/h

Published high-altitude maximum for the production MiG-25. A short dash, not an FAI absolute record and not a cruise figure.

VerifiedAirforce Technology (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • London to New York in 1 h 51 minConstant · London to New York, 5,570 km great-circle
  • 29× a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • 9.1 football fields a secondConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)

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

This list

Why it's so fast

A fighter is fast in a dash: afterburning thrust against a small airframe, for as long as the fuel and the heat allow. Cruise speed and a record dash are not the same claim.

  1. Afterburner

    Dumping fuel into the exhaust adds thrust and burns it quickly. A published maximum is often that dash, not the speed the jet can hold across an ocean.

  2. The airframe's limit

    Intake design, temperature and the canopy all cap the number. The sources say whether the figure is a record run or a handbook maximum.

A related air-breathing record is the SR-71.

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. 3,000km/h1,864mph833m/s1,620knMach2.45Ranked figure

    Published high-altitude maximum for the production MiG-25. A short dash, not an FAI absolute record and not a cruise figure.

    Verified
    Airforce Technology (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Scope
Published maximum
Speed
3,000 km/h
Limit
Short dash, not a cruise
Class
Interceptor

Context

Background

This row is a published service maximum, scoped separately from the FAI absolute speed records. Airforce Technology prints 3,000 km/h at high altitude for the MiG-25P. Milavia prints more than Mach 2.83 or 3,000 km/h (1,865 mph) at 13,000 m. The specification table reprinted on the aircraft's Wikipedia page also leads with 3,000 km/h. The ranked unit is kilometres per hour.

The same accounts limit that dash. Wikipedia's flight description says Mach 2.83 (3,000 km/h) is allowed for no more than about five minutes because the airframe and fuel overheat. That constraint is a condition, not a reason to drop the figure. No FAI absolute file was used, so the qualifier is verified rather than official.

Head to head

Compare Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25

Open the speed race

Spot a wrong number?

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