page_title: Fastest propeller-driven aircraft
section_title: Turboprops
hierarchical_section_title: Fastest propeller-driven aircraft / Turboprops
caption_attribution_description: Tupolew Tu-114 (Cleat) at Monino Central Air Force Museum (Moscow)
context_page_description: A number of aircraft have been claimed to be the fastest propeller-driven aircraft. Fédération Aéronautique Internationale records are the basis for this article. Other contenders and their claims are discussed, but only those made under controlled conditions and measured by outside observers. Pilots during World War II sometimes claimed to have reached supersonic speeds in propeller-driven fighters during emergency dives, but these speeds are not included as accepted records. Neither are speeds recorded in a dive during high-speed tests with the Supermarine Spitfire, including Squadron Leader J.R. Tobin's 606 mph in a 45° dive in a Mark XI Spitfire and Squadron Leader Anthony F. Martindale's breaking 620 mph in the same aircraft in April 1944. Flight Lieutenant Edward Powles' 690 mph in Spitfire PR.XIX PS852 during an emergency dive while carrying out spying flights over China on 5 February 1952 is also discounted. This would otherwise be the highest speed ever recorded for a piston-engined aircraft.
context_section_description: The Tupolev Tu-114, a large aircraft with four turboprop engines, has a maximum speed of 540 mph (878 km/h, Mach 0.73). The 15,000 hp (11,000 kW) Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprop engines designed for the Tupolev Tu-95 (and used to power the derivative Tu-114) are the most powerful turboprops ever built and drive large contra-rotating propellers. This engine-propeller combination gives the Tu-114 the official distinction of being the fastest propeller-driven aircraft in the world, a record it has held since 1960.
  Probably the fastest aircraft ever fitted with an operating propeller was the experimental McDonnell XF-88B, which was made by installing an Allison T38 turboshaft engine in the nose of a pure jet-powered XF-88 Voodoo. This unusual aircraft was intended to explore the use of high-speed propellers and achieved supersonic speeds. This aircraft is not considered to be propeller-driven since most of the thrust was provided by two jet engines.
  An oft-cited contender for the fastest propeller-driven aircraft is the XF-84H Thunderscreech. This aircraft is named in Guinness World Records, 1997, as the fastest in this category with a speed of 623 mph (1,002 km/h, Mach 0.83). While it may have been designed as the fastest propeller-driven aircraft, this goal was not realized due to its inherent instability. This record speed is also inconsistent with data from the National Museum of the United States Air Force, which gives a top speed of 520 mph (837 km/h, Mach 0.70), slower than the Tu-114.
caption: Tupolev Tu-114
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