Supersonic civilian pilots

[beardy]

Just out of curiosity, how many non-British pilots have piloted civilian aircraft (or any vehicle) past Mach1? How many British pilots have?

[Spooky 2]

Probably thousands. What's your point? As soon as you say "any vehicle" you widen the playing field considerably.

[beardy]

No point really, just curiosity. I can't think of many civilian aircraft that fly over Mach 1 and as far as I know, and I am probably wrong, the only other vehicle capable was a rocket powered car.

[Heathrow Harry]

quite a few guys at BA in the days of Concorde I thought - several times every day for years

[anotheruser]

Wasn't there a French airline that operated a supersonic aircraft for some time?

[beardy]

I see that "Starfighters" based at Cape Canaveral are allowed, by the FAA, to operate supersonically when on contract to NASA. I remember hearing of an Iraeli 747 inadvetrantly going supersonic on a flight test.
So BA, Air France, possibly an Israeli crew, Virgin Galactic, an Austrian parachutist the 'Starfighters' (although in a civilian owned ex-military aircraft) and Andy Green. Anybody else?

[Jwscud]

You could go supersonic in the Lightnings at Thunder City in Cape Town when they were still operating. I'm not sure how many punters they had but it was about £7k a pop.

And don't forget all those jammy TV presenters who wangled back seat rides either.

[MetoPower]

I see that "Starfighters" based at Cape Canaveral are allowed, by the FAA, to operate supersonically when on contract to NASA. I remember hearing of an Iraeli 747 inadvetrantly going supersonic on a flight test.
So BA, Air France, possibly an Israeli crew, Virgin Galactic, an Austrian parachutist the 'Starfighters' (although in a civilian owned ex-military aircraft) and Andy Green. Anybody else?


A DC8 did that (intentionally) long before. See
The DC-8 Supersonic Flight (http://www.dc-8jet.com/0-dc8-sst-flight.htm)

[anotheruser]

Oh, and how about civilian test pilots of all the companies that build supersonic aircraft for the military?

And do the astronauts and cosmonauts of the various space agencies around the world belong to the military or are they civilians when they operate their spacecraft (which are not aircraft but still fall under the category "any vehicle")?

[beardy]

Good point about test pilots, I suppose that as employees they are no longer military and they fly under civilian rules. I guess space travellers would also count when in the atmosphere as travellers, but only shuttle pilots as pilots.

I seem to recall there are civilian rules about being supersonic over land in many countries, they sounded the economic death knell for Concorde.

[anotheruser]

I guess space travellers would also count when in the atmosphere as travellers, but only shuttle pilots as pilots.

Isn't it possible to manually control the good old rockets, at least the capsules? So those astronauts who are in control of the spacecraft would count as pilots.

Can we count flights outside the atmosphere as "supersonic"?