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. 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). 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

Hot-air balloons

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 15.24 km. A Winzen balloon launched from Chico, California, in 1972 set the uncrewed altitude record of 51.8 km. Its volume was 47,800,000 ft3. 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 80000 m3, which was 60 m in diameter). The balloon rose at a speed of 250 m/min and reached an altitude of 53.7 km, surpassing the previous world record set in 2002 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 49009 ft by Robert Harris using lee waves over California City, United States. The flight was accomplished using the Grob 102 Standard Astir III. This was surpassed at 50720 ft 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. This record was achieved over El Calafate (Patagonia, Argentina) and set as part of the Perlan Project. This was raised at 52172 ft on September 3, 2017 by Jim Payne (pilot) and Morgan Sandercock (co-pilot) in the Perlan 2, a special built high altitude research glider. This record was again achieved over El Calafate and as part of the Perlan Project. 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 76,124 ft, surpassing the 73,737 ft attained by Jerry Hoyt on April 17, 1989, in a Lockheed U-2: the highest subsonic flight.

Fixed-wing aircraft

Piston-driven propeller aeroplane

The highest altitude obtained by a piston-driven propeller UAV (without payload) is 67028 ft. It was obtained during 1988–1989 by the Boeing Condor UAV. The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller biplane (without a payload) was 17.083 km on October 22, 1938, by Mario Pezzi at Montecelio, Italy in a Caproni Ca.161 driven by a Piaggio XI R.C. engine. The highest altitude obtained in a piston-driven propeller monoplane (without a payload) was 18.552 km 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 37.650 km set by Aleksandr Vasilyevich Fedotov in a Mikoyan-Gurevich E-266M (MiG-25M) on August 31, 1977.

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 500 km on servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope. The highest altitude obtained by a crewed aeroplane (launched from another aircraft) is 112.010 km by Brian Binnie in the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne (powered by a Scaled Composite SD-010 engine with 18000 lbf of thrust) on October 4, 2004, at Mojave, California. The SpaceShipOne was launched at over 13.3 km. The previous (unofficial) record was 107.960 km 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 50 mi, qualifying these pilots as being astronauts; of those 13 flights, two (flown by the same civilian pilot) met the FAI definition of outer space: 100 km.

Mixed power

The official record for a mixed power aircraft was achieved on May 2, 1958, by Roger Carpentier when he reached 24.217 km 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 120,800 ft on December 6, 1963, by Major Robert W. Smith in a Lockheed NF-104A mixed power (turbojet and rocket engine) aircraft.

Electrically powered aircraft

The highest altitude obtained by an electrically powered aircraft is 96,863 ft 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 500 to 2500 kg).

Rotorcraft

On June 21, 1972, Jean Boulet of France piloted an Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama helicopter to an absolute altitude record of 40814 ft. 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. 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 27.307 km, from a helium balloon that was launched approximately 80 km 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. 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 35.043 km.

Cannon rounds

The current world-record for highest cannon projectile flight is held by Project HARP’s 16 in space gun prototype, which fired a 180 kg Martlet 2 projectile to a record height of 180 km in Yuma, Arizona, on November 18, 1966. The projectile’s trajectory sent it beyond the Kármán line at 100 km, making it the first cannon-fired projectile to do so. 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 106 kg shells had a range of about 130 km with a maximum altitude of about 42.3 km.