The highest performing aircraft depends on the category, such as size, speed, or stealth. The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger aircraft, the Boeing X-43A is the fastest scramjet, and the F-22 Raptor and B-2 Spirit bomber are the stealthiest planes.
What we call the highest performing aircraft in the world depends on which performance category we’re looking at: size, speed, or stealth. All of these qualities can be the most useful depending on the application.
The world’s largest passenger aircraft is the Airbus A380, which can carry up to 853 people in an economy class configuration. The Airbus is so big that the nickname “Superjumbo” was created for it, and it can only land at specially designed airports. The vehicle has so far only flown for test and show flights, but is set to enter service in late 2007 or early 2008.
There are several extremely fast aircraft. What you call the fastest depends on your definition of “aircraft”, but in general an aircraft should 1) be able to take off without assistance, 2) work in the lower atmosphere, and 3) land without assistance. The fastest craft, scramjets that operate high in the atmosphere, do not meet this definition, however they can be extremely fast. The fastest scramjet ever flown is the Boeing X-43A, which set a speed record of 7,546 mph (12,144 km/h), or Mach 9.8, on November 16, 2004. The fastest true aircraft is the SR -71 Blackbird, which reached a speed of 2,188 mph (3,521 km/h), or Mach 2.8, on July 28, 1976. Several rockets have reached speeds in the Mach 5-7 range, but these cannot take off or land alone. Technically the fastest aircraft is the space shuttle, but again, it cannot take off on its own and reaches its top speeds outside of Earth’s atmosphere.
The title of the world’s stealthiest plane is a toss up between the F-22 Raptor and the B-2 Spirit bomber. It could be argued that the F-22 Raptor is stealthier because it is smaller and therefore probably harder to spot. Both are extremely advanced and expensive aircraft used by the United States military. They do not appear on radar, but must be seen visually. The Joint Strike Fighter, currently in development by the US and UK, will also be a very stealthy craft, and its updated design will likely make it even harder to spot than the F-22 Raptor or B-2. Spirit.
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