From the Me 262 to late-war Spitfires and Mustangs, this list ranks WWII’s quickest combat-ready aircraft by top speed and real-world impact—skipping pure prototypes and rocket interceptors—to ...

The top speed of the fastest operational fighter was less than 360 mph when the war started. By 1945, this had increased by an astonishing 300mph. Knowing that ‘speed was life’, some designers packed ...

The Opel RAK.1, the first purpose-designed rocket plane, flew on 30 September 1929. It reached a top speed of 150 km/h (93 mph). The first operational military rocket-powered aircraft was the ...