Traveling at Supersonic Speeds: How Fast is Mach 10.3?

In the sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick,” Tom Cruise manages to reach the astounding supersonic speed of Mach 10 and then even goes a little faster until he reaches Mach 10.3, but his jet fails and ultimately disintegrates. It’s a fun scene to watch, but what’s the reality? Could a human travel in an aircraft at that speed? Just how fast is Mach 10.3? Read on to find out.

How Fast is Mach 10.3?

Mach 10.3 is approximately 7,903 miles per hour (2.2 miles per second). This is equivalent to 12,718 kilometers per hour, 11,591 feet per second, or 3,533 meters per second. Looking at it another way, Mach 1 is the speed of sound, so Mach 10.3 is 10.3 times the speed of sound.

What is Supersonic Speed?

Supersonic speed is the speed of an object traveling faster than the speed of sound. Mach 1 is equivalent to 768 miles per hour measured at sea level. When an object travels faster than the speed of sound, it creates a sonic boom, which sounds like an explosion or a loud clap. Although modern-day technology can fly aircraft at supersonic speeds, it’s mainly prohibited. Sonic booms from large aircraft could cause a lot of noise, disturbing people and causing structural damage.

What’s the Fastest Aircraft in the World?

In 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1. For the next 20 years, many experimental flights continued at increasingly faster speeds. Finally, in 1967, pilot William J. Knight flew the X-15 hypersonic spaceplane at Mach 6.7 (or 4,520 miles per hour). To this day, that remains the record for the fastest crewed airplane.

The fastest uncrewed jet-powered aircraft was NASA’s X-43A, which reached a maximum speed of Mach 9.6. However, it only kept it up for about ten seconds, as speeds this high make it very hard to keep an engine running.

The record for the fastest crewed vehicle ever was Apollo 10, which reached a maximum speed of Mach 37 (or 25,000 miles per hour) as it entered Earth’s atmosphere in 1969.

How Many Machs Is the Speed of Light?

The speed of light is Mach 874,030 (or 671 million miles per hour.) Despite science fiction movies, from what we understand of physics today, no object can reach speeds this fast. Only photons, or massless particles, can travel at the speed of light. As far as our understanding goes, objects that travel at the speed of light would take infinite energy to do so.

Comparing Mach 10.3 to the Speed of Other Objects

We can compare the speeds of some other fast objects to get an idea of how fast Mach 10.3 is.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock.com