SPEED RECORD BREAKING VEHICLES
Added on: 7th Apr 2016
LUNAR ROVER
Even among lunar vehicles there is a speed world record
holder. With a maximum speed of 17 km/h (10.6 mph), the
Lunar Roving Vehicle (Commonly known as the “moon buggy”)
is the current world record holder. The vehicle was used in
the last three missions of the American Apollo program
(15, 16, and 17).
MANNED SPACE VEHICLE
The spacecraft used in the fourth manned mission in the
United States Apollo space program, Apollo 10 holds the
Guinness World Record for highest speed attained by any
manned vehicle, at 24,791 mph (39,897 km/h), during the
return from the Moon on May 26, 1969.
UNMANNED SPACE VEHICLE
The title of the world´s fastest unmanned spacecraft and fastest
vehicle ever belongs to Helios 1 and Helios 2 – a pair of
probes launched into heliocentric orbit for the purpose of
studying solar processes. Launched from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, in December 1974, and January 1976, respectively,
the probes hurtled through space at 252,792 km/h (157,078 mph).
STEAM-POWERED VEHICLE
Driven by Charles Burnet III, a British steam car nicknamed
the “fastest kettle in the world”, currently holds the title for the
fastest steam-powered vehicle. In 2009, the car achieved a
speed of 140 mph (225 km/h) at the Edwards Air Force Base
in California.
GLIDER
In December 2006, pilots Klaus Ohlmann and Matias Garcia Mazzaro
set a new world record for the fastest glider by reaching a
speed of 306.8 km/h (190.6 mph) with their high-performance
two-seat glider Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-4.
WHEEL DRIVEN VEHICLE
In 2001, just a year before he died, Don Vesco, an American
businessperson and famous motorcycle racer, set the
wheel-driven land speed world record of 458.440 miles per hour
(737.788 km/h) in his turbo-shaft powered streamliner
called “Turbinator”.
WATER VEHICLE
Powered by a Westinghouse J34 jet engine, the Spirit of Australia,
a wooden speed boat, is the fastest vehicle that has ever
touched water. In 1978, Ken Warby, an Australian motorboat
racer, set the record by reaching a speed of 317.596 mph
(511.11 km/h) with this boat.
SOLAR-POWERED VEHICLE
Another vehicle designed in Australia, the Sunswift IV (IVy) broke
the Guinness World Record for the fastest solar powered
vehicle at the Royal Australian Navy Airbase in 2007 by
reaching a top speed of 88.5 kilometres per hour (55 mph),
beating the previous record of 22 years by over
10 km/h (6.2 mph).
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