Planes with Brains 2

Wee.

Greetings winged scouts.

Hey, it's Commander Airhead.

Hello there Commander Airhead.

Gumdrop, Vroomer, it's that time again.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it,

is to discover all about

the most fascinating machine of all.

Planes.

Planes.

Exactly.

You will travel all over the world, across time,

space, and beyond.

You must keep your little metal noses pointed ahead,

your motors humming and your wings perked at all times,

we depend on you to do the best job possible.

Are you ready for your assignment?

As ready as a long-winged plane on a windy day Commander.

My engine's revving on overdrive.

We're ready for our mission Commander Airhead.

This is sure to be a challenging mission little ones.

Cloudless skies, oh I love challenging missions.

Endless horizons, me too.

I'm sending you two on a mission

to learn about the world's fastest jets.

The world's fastest jets, how cool?

Yeah.

It's up to you to learn all about it

and report back to me with what you've discovered.

Let's do it.

This is going to be an incredible adventure.

What can you tell us about the world's fastest jets,

Commander Airhead?

Well just imagine winged scouts,

pushing your throttles back and feeling the rush

of your engines pushing you to speeds faster

than anything alive has ever achieved.

Amazing, incredible, life changing.

Wow, I can't wait to find out more.

The world's fastest jets sounds absolutely amazing.

As you know, Vroomer and Gumdrop, to help educate

the little planes of the future you must find out

and learn tons of amazing facts about airplanes.

Yes Commander Airhead.

we will.

Excellent.

You must also know there is a question

that all the brightest flying minds,

all over the world skies have not been able to answer

about the world's fastest jets.

We need you two winged scouts to help us answer

the Who Flew question about the world's fastest jets.

Who Flew question, love it.

What is the question Commander Airhead?

Which jet holds the record

for the longest hypersonic flight in history,

and when was it set?

That's a great question Commander Airhead.

We'll have the answer in the flip of a wing, I'm sure.

I will assign you the best winged scout helper

in the world, his name is Willie Widget,

he's a robotic encyclopedia of aircraft knowledge.

He will assist you on your mission.

Our most valuable player.

Come on down Willie Widget.

Be sure to ask a lot of questions winged scouts.

You know, Mr. Widget can handle it.

Yeah.

Winged scouts ready to fly Commander Airhead.

Winged scouts.

Hurray.

Winged scouts.

Ha-ha ready to get started on your next adventure?

Yes super ready.

Totally ready.

Remember winged scouts, any and all questions you have

I am here to answer them.

Where do we begin?

On December 17th 1903, Orville Wright

finally achieved something that mankind had dreamed of

for the entirety of human history.

He made the first sustained and controlled

heavier than air powered flight.

And even though that pioneering flight was only

120 feet long, Orville and brother Wilbur inspired

a thousand others to build bigger, better,

and above all faster flying machines in the century

that followed their historic achievement.

Whoa.

There are very many jets that have exceeded

the speed of Mach 2.0

some of them are research aircraft, some are military

and some are simply flying for reconnaissance purposes.

But, there is always something special

with supersonic aircraft.

To see some of the fastest jets ever built,

we need to take a tour around the world.

Wings away guys.

Yeah.

In the United States, 47 years after it first flew

the f-15 was developed by McDonnell Douglas,

now Boeing, and it was one of the first

to gain air supremacy in aerial combat.

The twin engine tactical fighter first entered service

in the US air force in 1976

and has become one of their longest lasting fighter

since that time.

Production of the model is expected to continue

until the year 2019.

So what's the top speed of the f-15?

The McDonnell Douglas f-15 eagle has a top speed

of 1,650 miles per hour.

Incredible, hit my plane brain

with more awesome plane facts Willie Widget.

In Russia, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat

was a supersonic reconnaissance and interceptor aircraft

that combined phenomenal speed

with advanced radar detection systems.

It did have one fundamental weakness,

which was its large wings that were needed to lift

the exceptionally heavy aircraft into the air.

It has a top speed of 2,190 miles per hour

and was eventually replaced by the Mikoyan MiG-31.

Blasting engines, that's amazing.

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

is another United States jet that was introduced in 1966,

only 32 Blackbirds were built and all were used

for reconnaissance and experimental research.

It featured stealth technology, but if it was,

against all odds, spotted by enemy forces,

it could outrun the interceptors, or surfaced air missiles

that were fired at it, due to its fantastic speed

in excess of 2,300 miles per hour.

In air testing it actually achieved a speed

of 2,600 miles per hour.

Zoinks, very fast indeed.

What happened next Willie?

Excellent question Gumdrop.

The SR-71 was flown extensively over hostile ground

during the Vietnam war, despite an estimated 800 missiles

being fired at the Blackbird, not one single plane

was ever shut down, although mechanical failures

plagued its reliability and about 12 of them were lost

due to this problem.

Whoa.

So are all the fastest jets always maned by humans?

That's a very good question Vroomer, no, they are not.

In fact the fastest among them are the unmanned jets

because they pose no danger to the pilots.

The Boeing X-51 Waverider is one of these jets

that are capable of hypersonic speeds in excess

of mach five.

The NASA X-43 is also an unmanned aircraft.

Woohoo.

So what is the fastest maned aircraft Willie?

The North American X-15 developed in the late 1950s

through a joint effort between North American Aviation,

who created the air frame, and Reaction Motors

who developed the engines, is the fastest maned jet,

it's rocket powered and capable of hypersonic speeds

in excess of 4,500 miles per hour or mach six.

It broke the record for the fastest speed ever achieved

by a maned jet.

Very nice.

So which is the fastest unmanned aircraft Willie?

Excellent question Vroomer, that will be,

the NASA X-43 which is an experimental unmanned

hypersonic aircraft developed by NASA

as part of its Hyper-X program.

It is the fastest aircraft on record with a top speed

of an incredible mach 9.6

or 7,310 miles per hour.

What is hypersonic speed Willie?

Very good question Vroomer, I see you are paying attention

a hypersonic speed is one that is highly supersonic

the term has generally been assumed to refer to speeds

of mach five and above.

An example of a hypersonic jet is the X-15

which is rocket powered.

How do jets handle hypersonic speed?

New materials and very powerful engines

capable of handling high temperatures and pressure

were developed to handle this rate of speed.

Whoa.

What engines power the fast SR-71 Blackbird jet?

The SR-71 Blackbird is powered by twin,

Pratt & Whitney J58 jets, which are capable of producing

up to 34,000 pounds of thrust each.

Whoa, tooting turbines, that's incredible.

Do you now that the SR-71 Blackbird

is still recognized as the fastest fighter jet

and in over 25 years of service has never once

been hit by a missile.

It was built to fly up to mach 3.4 speeds.

That's approximately 2,500 miles per hour on land.

Yipee.

Yay.

Over the years the aviation improvements

have come a long way, and these fast jets

are proof of that.