Flight altitude record explained

This listing of flight altitude records are the records set for the highest aeronautical flights conducted in the atmosphere, set since the age of ballooning.

Some, but not all of the records were certified by the non-profit international aviation organization, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). One reason for a lack of 'official' certification was that the flight occurred prior to the creation of the FAI.^[1]

For clarity, the "Fixed-wing aircraft" table is sorted by FAI-designated categories as determined by whether the record-creating aircraft left the ground by its own power (category "Altitude"), or whether it was first carried aloft by a carrier-aircraft prior to its record setting event (category "Altitude gain", or formally "Altitude Gain, Aeroplane Launched from a Carrier Aircraft"). Other sub-categories describe the airframe, and more importantly, the powerplant type (since rocket-powered aircraft can have greater altitude abilities than those with air-breathing engines).^[1]

An essential requirement for the creation of an "official" altitude record is the employment of FAI-certified observers present during the record-setting flight. Thus several records noted are unofficial due to the lack of such observers.

Balloons

• 1783-08-15: 24m (79feet); Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier of France, the first ascent in a hot-air balloon.
• 1783-10-19: 81m (266feet); Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, in Paris.
• 1783-10-19: 105m (344feet); Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier with André Giroud de Villette, in Paris.
• 1783-11-21: 1000m (3,000feet); Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier with Marquis d'Arlandes, in Paris.
• 1783-12-01: 2.7km (01.7miles); Jacques Alexandre Charles and his assistant Marie-Noël Robert, both of France, made the first flight in a hydrogen balloon to about . Charles then ascended alone to the record altitude.
• 1784-06-23: 4km (02miles); Pilâtre de Rozier and the chemist Joseph Proust in a Montgolfier.
• 1803-07-18: 7.28km (04.52miles); Étienne-Gaspard Robert and Auguste Lhoëst in a balloon.
• 1839: 7.9km (04.9miles); Charles Green and Spencer Rush in a free balloon.
• 1862-09-05: about 29500feet; Henry Coxwell and James Glaisher in a balloon filled with coal gas.^[2] Glaisher lost consciousness during the ascent due to the low air pressure and cold temperature of -11°C.
• 1901-07-31: 10.8km (06.7miles); Arthur Berson and Reinhard Süring in the hydrogen balloon Preußen, in an open basket and with oxygen in steel cylinders. This flight contributed to the discovery of the stratosphere.
• 1927-11-04: 13.222km (08.216miles); Captain Hawthorne C. Gray, of the U.S. Army Air Corps, in a helium balloon. Gray lost consciousness after his oxygen supply ran out and was killed in the crash.
• 1931-05-27: 15.781km (09.806miles); Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer in a hydrogen balloon.
• 1932: 16.201km (10.067miles) -Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns in a hydrogen balloon.
• 1933-09-30: 18.501km (11.496miles); USSR balloon USSR-1.
• 1933-11-20: 18.592km (11.553miles); Lt. Comdr. Thomas G. W. Settle (USN) and Maj Chester L. Fordney (USMC) in Century of Progress balloon
• 1934-01-30: 21.946km (13.637miles); USSR balloon Osoaviakhim-1. The three crew were killed when the balloon broke up during the descent.
• 1935-11-10: 22.066km (13.711miles); Captain O. A. Anderson and Captain A. W. Stevens (U.S. Army Air Corps) ascended in the Explorer II gondola from the Stratobowl, near Rapid City, South Dakota, for a flight that lasted 8 hours 13 minutes and covered 362km (225miles).
• 1956-11-08: 23.165km (14.394miles); Malcolm D. Ross and M. L. Lewis (U.S. Navy) in Office of Naval Research Strato-Lab I, using a pressurized gondola and plastic balloon launching near Rapid City, South Dakota, and landing 282km (175miles) away near Kennedy, Nebraska.
• 1957-06-02: 29.4997km (18.3303miles); Captain Joseph W. Kittinger (U.S. Air Force) ascended in the Project Manhigh 1 gondola to a record-breaking altitude.
• 1957-08-19: 31.212km (19.394miles); above sea level, Major David Simons (U.S. Air Force) ascended from the Portsmouth Mine near Crosby, Minnesota, in the Manhigh 2 gondola for a 32-hour record-breaking flight. Simons landed at 5:32 p.m. on August 20 in northeastern South Dakota.
• 1960-08-16: 31.333km (19.469miles); Testing a high-altitude parachute system, Joseph Kittinger of the U.S. Air Force parachuted from the Excelsior III balloon over New Mexico at 102800feet. He set world records for: high-altitude jump; freefall diving by falling 16abbr=onNaNabbr=on before opening his parachute; and fastest speed achieved by a human without motorized assistance, 614abbr=onNaNabbr=on.
• 1961-05-04: 34.668km (21.542miles); Commander Malcolm D. Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather, Jr., of the U.S. Navy ascended in the Strato-Lab V, in an unpressurized gondola. After descending, the gondola containing the two balloonists landed in the Gulf of Mexico. Prather slipped off the rescue helicopter's hook into the gulf and drowned.
• 1966-02-02: 37.6km (23.4miles); Amateur parachutist Nicholas Piantanida of the United States with his "Project Strato-Jump" II balloon. Because he was unable to disconnect his oxygen line from the gondola's main feed, the ground crew had to remotely detach the balloon from the gondola. His planned free fall and parachute jump was abandoned, and he returned to the ground in the gondola. Nick was unable to accomplish his desired free fall record, however his spectacular flight set other records that held up for 46 years. Because of the design of his glove, he was unable to reattach his safety seat belt harness. He endured very high g-forces, and died during the descent. Piantanida's ascent is not recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as a balloon altitude world record, because he did not return with his balloon, although that was not the feat he was trying to accomplish. On this second attempt of "Project Strato-Jump", Nick Piantanida took with him 250 postmarked air-mail envelopes and letters. At the time, these letters were the first covers to have ever been delivered by the U.S. Post Office via space. The habit of taking cover letters to space continued with the Apollo Program; in 1972 there was a scandal involving the Apollo 15 astronauts. It is unclear if any of the "Project Strato-Jump" covers survived, and were eventually mailed to the intended recipients.
• 2012-10-14: 38.969km (24.214miles); Felix Baumgartner in the Red Bull Stratos balloon. The flight started near Roswell, New Mexico, and returned to earth via a record-setting parachute jump.
• 2014-10-24: 41.424km (25.74miles); Alan Eustace, a senior vice president at the Google corporation, in a helium balloon, returning to earth via parachute jump during the StratEx mission executed by Paragon Space Development Corporation.^{[3] [4]}

Hot-air balloons

Year	Date	Altitude		Person	Aircraft	Notes
		imperial	metric
1783	October 15	84abbr=onNaNabbr=on			tethered balloon
1988	June 6	64996abbr=onNaNabbr=on		Colt 600	In Laredo, Texas.^[5]
2004	December 13	21699abbr=onNaNabbr=on		Boland Rover A-2	Fédération Aéronautique Internationale record for hot air balloon
2005	November 26	68986abbr=onNaNabbr=on		Cameron Z-1600	Vijaypat Singhania set the world altitude record for hot-air-balloon flight, reaching 21027m (68,986feet). He launched from downtown Mumbai, India, and landed 240km (150miles) south in Panchale.

Uncrewed gas balloon

During 1893 French scientist Jules Richard constructed sounding balloons. These uncrewed balloons, carrying light, but very precise instruments, approached an altitude of 15.24km (09.47miles).^[6]

A Winzen balloon launched from Chico, California, in 1972 set the uncrewed altitude record of 51.8km (32.2miles). Its volume was 47800000abbr=onNaNabbr=on.^[7]

On September 20, 2013, JAXA launched an ultrathin film balloon called BS13-08 made of 2.8 μm thick polyethylene film with a volume of, which was in diameter). The balloon rose at a speed of 250m/min and reached an altitude of, surpassing the previous world record set in 2002^[8]

This was the greatest height a flying object reached without using rockets or a launch with a cannon.

Gliders

On February 17, 1986, The highest altitude obtained by a soaring aircraft was set at 49009abbr=onNaNabbr=on by Robert Harris using lee waves over California City, United States. The flight was accomplished using the Grob 102 Standard Astir III.^[9]

This was surpassed at 50720abbr=onNaNabbr=on set on August 30, 2006, by Steve Fossett (pilot) and Einar Enevoldson (co-pilot) in their high performance research glider Perlan 1, a modified Glaser-Dirks DG-500.^[10] This record was achieved over El Calafate (Patagonia, Argentina) and set as part of the Perlan Project.^[11]

This was raised at 52172abbr=onNaNabbr=on on September 3, 2017^[12] by Jim Payne (pilot) and Morgan Sandercock (co-pilot) in the Perlan 2,^[13] a special built high altitude research glider. This record was again achieved over El Calafate and as part of the Perlan Project.^[11]

On September 2, 2018, within the Airbus Perlan Mission II, again from El Calafate, the Perlan II piloted by Jim Payne and Tim Gardner reached, surpassing the attained by Jerry Hoyt on April 17, 1989, in a Lockheed U-2: the highest subsonic flight.^[14]

Fixed-wing aircraft

Year	Date	Altitude		Person	Aircraft	Propulsion	Notes
		data-sort-type="number"	Imperial					data-sort-type="number"	Metric
1890	October 8	8 in	0.2 m			propeller	Uncontrolled hop
1903	December 17	10 ft	3 m			propeller	Photographed and witnessed unofficially.
1906	October 23	10feet			propeller	First officially witnessed and certified flight.
1906	November 12	13feet			propeller
1908	December 18	360abbr=onNaNabbr=on		Biplane	propeller	at Auovors
1909	July 18	492abbr=onNaNabbr=on			propeller	Concours d’Aviation, La Brayelle, Douai^[15]
1909		3018abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Louis Paulhan	Farman	propeller	Lyon
1910	January 9	4164abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Louis Paulhan	Farman	propeller	Los Angeles Air Meet^[16]
1910	June 17	4603abbr=onNaNabbr=on			propeller	^[17]
1910	August 11	6621abbr=onNaNabbr=on		Blériot monoplane	propeller	Lanark Aviation Meeting^[18]
1910	October 30	8471abbr=onNaNabbr=on			propeller	International Aviation Tournament was at the Belmont Park race track in Elmont, New York^[19]
1910	December 26	11474abbr=onNaNabbr=on			propeller	Second International Aviation Meet held in 1910 at Dominguez Field, Los Angeles.^[20] Hoxsey died in a plane crash five days later while trying to set a new record.^[21]
1912	September 11	5610m (18,410feet)			propeller	Saint-Brieuc (France) ^[22]
1915	January 5	11950abbr=onNaNabbr=on			propeller	^[23]
1916	November 9	26083abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Guido Guidi		propeller	Torino Mirafiori airfield^[24]
1919	June 14	31230abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Jean Casale	Nieuport NiD.29	propeller	^[25] ^[26]
1920	February 27	33113abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Major Rudolf Schroeder	LUSAC-11	propeller	^[27] ^[28]
1921	September 18	34508abbr=onNaNabbr=on		LUSAC-11	propeller	^[29]
1923	September 5	35240abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Joseph Sadi-Lecointe	Nieuport NiD.40R	propeller	^[30] ^[31]
1923	October 30	36565abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Joseph Sadi-Lecointe	Nieuport NiD.40R	propeller	^[32]
1924	October 21	12066order=flipNaNorder=flip	Jean Callizo	Gourdou-Leseurre 40 C.1	propeller	^[33] Callizo later claimed several higher records, but these were stripped from him, as he had falsified barograph readings.^[34] ^[35]
1930	June 4	43168abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Lt. Apollo Soucek, USN	Wright Apache	propeller	^[36]
1932	September 16	43976abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Cyril Uwins	Vickers Vespa	propeller	^[37]
1933	September 28	44819abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Gustave Lemoine	Potez 506	propeller	^[38]
1934	April 11	47354abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Renato Donati	Caproni Ca.113 AQ	propeller	^[39] ^[40]
1936	August 14	48698abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Georges Détré	Potez 506	propeller	highest with no pressure suit^[41]
1936	September 28	49967abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Squadron Leader Francis Ronald Swain	Bristol Type 138	propeller	^[42]
1938	June 30	53937abbr=onNaNabbr=on	M. J. Adam	Bristol Type 138	propeller
1938	October 22	56850abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Lt. Colonel Mario Pezzi	Caproni Ca.161	crewed propeller-driven biplane record so far	^[43]
1948	March 23	59430feet	John Cunningham	de Havilland Vampire	turbojet	Modified Vampire F.1 with extended wingtips and a de Havilland Ghost jet engine.^[44] ^[45]
1949	August 8	71902feet	Brigadier General Frank Kendall Everest Jr.	Bell X-1	air-launched rocket plane	Unofficial record.^[46]
1951	August 15	79494abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Bill Bridgeman	Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket	air-launched rocket plane	Unofficial record. Powered by the XLR11 liquid fuel rocket engine (designated as XLR8-RM-5).
1953	May 4	63668abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Walter Gibb	English Electric Canberra B.2	turbojet	propelled by two Rolls-Royce Olympus engines.^[47]
1953	August 21	83235abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Lt. Col. Marion Carl	Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket	air-launched rocket plane	Unofficial record. Powered by the XLR11 liquid fuel rocket engine (designated as XLR8-RM-5).
1954	May 28	90440abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Arthur W. Murray	Bell X-1A	air-launched rocket plane	Unofficial record. Powered by the XLR11 liquid fuel rocket engine.^[48]
1955	August 29	65876abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Walter Gibb	English Electric Canberra B.2	turbojet	Olympus powered.^[49]
1956	September 7	126283abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Iven Kincheloe	Bell X-2	air-launched rocket plane	^[50]
1957	August 28	70310abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Mike Randrup	English Electric Canberra WK163	turbojet & rocket	With Napier "Double Scorpion" rocket motor
1958	April 18	76939abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Lt. Commander George C. Watkins, USN		turbojet	^[51]
1958	May 2	79452abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Roger Carpentier	SNCASO Trident II	turbojet & rocket
1958	May 7	91243abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Major Howard C. Johnson		turbojet	This F-104 became the first aircraft to simultaneously hold the world speed, rate of climb and altitude records when on May 16, 1958, U.S. Air Force Capt. Walter W. Irwin set a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph
1959	September 4	94658abbr=onNaNabbr=on			turbojet
1959	December 6	98557abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Commander Lawrence E. Flint, Jr.		turbojet
1959	December 14	103389abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Capt "Joe" B. Jordan		turbojet	General Electric J79
1961	March 30	169600abbr=onNaNabbr=on			air-launched rocket plane	First human to reach the mesosphere. Last world altitude record before Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight Vostok 1.^[52]
1961	April 28	113891abbr=onNaNabbr=on			turbojet & rocket	R-11
1962	July 17	314700abbr=onNaNabbr=on			air-launched rocket plane	Not a C-1 FAI record
1963	July 19	347400abbr=onNaNabbr=on			air-launched rocket plane	Not a C-1 FAI record.
1963	August 22	353200abbr=onNaNabbr=on			air-launched rocket plane	Not a C-1 FAI record
1963	October 22	118860abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Major Robert W. Smith		turbojet & rocket	Unofficial altitude record for an aircraft with self-powered takeoff.
1963	December 6	120800abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Major Robert W. Smith		turbojet & rocket	Unofficial altitude record for an aircraft with self-powered takeoff.
1973	July 25	118898abbr=onNaNabbr=on			Jet plane record	Under Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) classification the Ye-155 type
1976	July 28	85069abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Captain Robert Helt		turbojet	Pratt & Whitney J58; Absolute Record of FAI classes C, H and M^[53] Another SR-71 set absolute speed record on the same day.
1977	August 31	123520abbr=onNaNabbr=on			Jet plane record	Under Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) classification the Ye-155 type
1995	August 4	60897abbr=onNaNabbr=on	2 pilots: Einar Enevoldson and other, and two scientists^[54]	Grob Strato 2C	crewed propeller monoplane record to date
2001	August 14	96863abbr=onNaNabbr=on	Uncrewed		propeller	Set altitude records for propeller driven aircraft, solar-electric aircraft, and highest altitude in horizontal flight by a winged aircraft.
2004	October 4	367490abbr=onNaNabbr=on			air launched rocket plane	In addition to the altitude record, this flight also set records for greatest mass lifted to altitude and minimum time between two consecutive flights in a reusable vehicle.^[55]

Piston-driven propeller aeroplane

The highest altitude obtained by a piston-driven propeller UAV (without payload) is 67028feet. It was obtained during 1988–1989 by the Boeing Condor UAV.^[56]

The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller biplane (without a payload) was 17.083km (10.615miles) on October 22, 1938, by Mario Pezzi at Montecelio, Italy in a Caproni Ca.161 driven by a Piaggio XI R.C. engine.^[57]

The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller monoplane (without a payload) was 18.552km (11.528miles) on August 4, 1995, by the Grob Strato 2C driven by two Teledyne Continental TSIO-550 engines.

Jet aircraft

The highest current world absolute general aviation altitude record for air breathing jet-propelled aircraft is 37.65km (23.39miles) set by Aleksandr Vasilyevich Fedotov in a Mikoyan-Gurevich E-266M (MiG-25M) on August 31, 1977.^{[58] [59]}

Rocket plane

The record for highest altitude obtained by a crewed rocket-powered aircraft is the US Space Shuttle (STS) which regularly reached altitudes of more than 500km (300miles) on servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The highest altitude obtained by a crewed aeroplane (launched from another aircraft) is 112.01km (69.6miles) by Brian Binnie in the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne (powered by a Scaled Composite SD-010 engine with 18000lbf of thrust) on October 4, 2004, at Mojave, California. The SpaceShipOne was launched at over .^[55]

The previous (unofficial) record was 107.96km (67.08miles) set by Joseph A. Walker in a North American X-15 in mission X-15 Flight 91 on August 22, 1963. Walker had reached 106 km – crossing the Kármán line the first time – with X-15 Flight 90 the previous month.

During the X-15 program, 8 pilots flew a combined 13 flights which met the Air Force spaceflight criterion by exceeding the altitude of 50miles, qualifying these pilots as being astronauts; of those 13 flights, two (flown by the same civilian pilot) met the FAI definition of outer space: 100km (100miles).^[60]

Mixed power

The official record for a mixed power aircraft was achieved on May 2, 1958, by Roger Carpentier when he reached 24.217km (15.048miles) over Istres, France in a Sud-Ouest Trident II mixed power (turbojet & rocket engine) aircraft.

The unofficial altitude record for mixed-power-aircraft with self-powered takeoff was 120800abbr=onNaNabbr=on on December 6, 1963, by Major Robert W. Smith in a Lockheed NF-104A mixed power (turbojet and rocket engine) aircraft.^[61]

Electrically powered aircraft

The highest altitude obtained by an electrically powered aircraft is 96863feet on August 14, 2001, by the NASA Helios, and is the highest altitude in horizontal flight by a winged aircraft. This is also the altitude record for propeller driven aircraft, FAI class U (Experimental / New Technologies), and FAI class U-1.d (Remotely controlled UAV, weight).^[62]

Rotorcraft

On June 21, 1972, Jean Boulet of France piloted an Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama helicopter to an absolute altitude record of 40814feet.^[63] At that extreme altitude, the engine flamed out and Boulet had to land the helicopter by breaking another record: the longest successful autorotation in history.^[64] The helicopter was stripped of all unnecessary equipment prior to the flight to minimize weight, and the pilot breathed supplemental oxygen.

Paper airplanes

The highest altitude obtained by a paper plane was previously held by the Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) project, which was released at an altitude of 27.307km (16.968miles), from a helium balloon that was launched approximately 80km (50miles) west of Madrid, Spain on October 28, 2010, and recorded by The Register's "special projects bureau". The project achieved a Guinness world record recognition.^{[65] [66]}

This record was broken on 24 June 2015 in Cambridgeshire, UK by the Space Club of Kesgrave High School, Suffolk, as part of their Stratos III project. The paper plane was launched from a balloon at 35.043km (21.775miles).^{[67] [68]}

Cannon rounds

The current world-record for highest cannon projectile flight is held by Project HARP’s space gun prototype, which fired a Martlet 2 projectile to a record height of 180km (110miles) in Yuma, Arizona, on November 18, 1966. The projectile’s trajectory sent it beyond the Kármán line at, making it the first cannon-fired projectile to do so.^[69]

The Paris Gun (German: Paris-Geschütz) was a German long-range siege gun used to bombard Paris during World War I. It was in service from March–August 1918. Its 106kg (234lb) shells had a range of about 130km (80miles) with a maximum altitude of about 42.3km (26.3miles).

See also

• Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
• High-altitude balloon
• High-altitude military parachuting
• High-altitude platform station

Bibliography

• Andrews, C.F. and E.B. Morgan. Vickers Aircraft since 1908. London:Putnam, 1988. .
• Angelucci, Enzo and Peter M. Bowers. The American Fighter. Sparkford, UK:Haynes Publishing Group, 1987. .
• Bridgman, Leonard. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1951–52. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd, 1951.
• "Eighteen Years of World's Records". Flight, February 7, 1924, pp. 73–75.
• Lewis, Peter. British Racing and Record-Breaking Aircraft. London:Putnam, 1971. .
• Owers, Colin. "Stop-Gap Fighter:The LUSAC Series". Air Enthusiast, Fifty, May to July 1993. Stamford, UK:Key Publishing. ISSN 0143-5450. pp. 49–51.
• Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1965–66. London:Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1965.
• "The Royal Aero Club of the U.K.: Official Notices to Members". Flight December 16, 1920.

External links

• Fédération Aéronautique Internationale –the international, non-profit, non-government organization that tracks aircraft world records
• Balloon World Records Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
• Excelsior III Details of Kittingers' Jump from a stratospheric balloon in 1960
• Iowa State University – High Altitude Balloon Experiments in Technology
• Web site: Altitude of the Highest Manned Balloon Flight. The Physics Factbook. Cassandra. Eng. 1997.

Notes and References

1. Maksel . Rebecca . Who Holds the Altitude Record For an Airplane?: Depends On the Category—And On Who Was Watching . Washington, D.C. . . . May 29, 2009 . March 3, 2012 . live . https://archive.today/20130116095803/http://www.airspacemag.com/need-to-know/Need-to-Know-Who-holds-the-altitude-record.html . January 16, 2013 .
2. Hazen . H. A. . December 9, 1898 . Glaisher's Highest Balloon Ascension . The Aeronautical Journal . en . 3 . 9 . 13 . 10.1017/S2398187300143610 . 164568526 . 2398-1873.
3. News: The New York Times. Alan Eustace Jumps From Stratosphere, Breaking Felix Baumgartner's World Record. October 24, 2014. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20141024205113/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/science/alan-eustace-jumps-from-stratosphere-breaking-felix-baumgartners-world-record.html. October 24, 2014. Markoff. John.
4. Web site: Alan Eustace and the Paragon StratEx Team Make Stratospheric Exploration History.
5. Book: The Guinness Book of World Records . Bantam Books . 1991 . McFarlan . Donald . 1991 . 316. 9780553289541 .
6. Web site: Early Scientific Balloons . February 4, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110208162351/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/early_scientific_balloons/LTA7.htm . February 8, 2011 .
7. Book: The Guinness Book of World Records . Bantam Books . 1991 . McFarlan . Donald . 1991 . 315. 9780553289541 .
8. Web site: ISAS 超薄膜高高度気球（BS13-08）が無人気球到達高度の世界記録を更新 / トピックス . 2024-01-30 . www.isas.jaxa.jp.
9. Web site: Grob 102 Standard Astir III – Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum . September 30, 2022 .
10. Web site: Fédération Aéronautique Internationale — Gliding World Records . July 24, 2009 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150413093412/http://www.fai.org/fai-record-file/?recordId=14043 . April 13, 2015 .
11. Web site: DG Flugzeugbau GmbH . Perlan Project . https://web.archive.org/web/20101215141919/http://dg-flugzeugbau.de/perlan-e.html#Perlan2 . dead . December 15, 2010 .
12. Web site: OLC Flight information – Jim Payne (US) – 03.09.2017. gGmbH. Segelflugszene. www.onlinecontest.org. September 3, 2017. live. http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20170903152512/https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=1234896874. September 3, 2017.
13. The Powerless Plane Riding the Wind to a New Altitude Record. WIRED. September 3, 2017. en-US. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20170904015139/https://www.wired.com/story/the-powerless-plane-riding-the-wind-to-a-new-altitude-record/. September 4, 2017.
14. Airbus Perlan Mission II glider soars to 76,000 feet to break own altitude record, surpassing even U-2 reconnaissance plane . September 3, 2018 . Airbus.
15. Web site: Concours d'Aviation de Douai . The First Air Races . January 2, 2020.
16. Web site: 1910 Dominguez Meet – Paulhan. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070208153747/http://www.1910dominguezmeet.com/paulhan.htm. February 8, 2007.
17. News: Washington Post. June 18, 1910. Indianapolis, Indiana, June 17, 1910. Walter Brookins, in a Wright biplane, broke the world's aeroplane record for altitude today, when he soared to a height of 4603feet, according to the measurement of the altimeter. His motor stopped as he was descending, and he made a glide of 2miles, landing easily in a wheat field..
18. Lewis 1971, p. 32.
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