The World's Fastest Helicopter
Keep in mind that the maximum speed a rotor helicopter can reach, in theory, before spinning out of control is just over 250 miles per hour.
Now that you know that, at an European air show on August 6, 1986 a Westland Lynx ZB500, that was slightly modified, reached a speed of 249.1 miles per hour or 400.8 km/h, making it the world's fastest helicopter.
The Westland Lynx ZB500
The World's Fastest Boat
The first water speed record was recorded on September 19, 1919 when Casey Baldwin throttled his Hydrodome IV up to a watery 70.86 MPH.
The current world's fastest boat is the Spirit of Australia which Ken Warby managed to get up to 317.60 MPH or 511.13 KM/H at Blowering Dam in New South Wales, Australia on October 08, 1978.
The Spirit of Australia
The World's Fastest Roller Coaster
How much would you pay to be the first rider on the world's fastest roller coaster?
Jeremy Delong paid just under $1,700.00 in an eBay auction to get the first seat on the inaugural run of Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey on May 20, 2005.
Kingda Ka goes from 0 to 128 MPH or 204.8 KM/H in just 3.3 seconds, becoming the first roller coaster to surpass the 200 KM/H mark.
Kingda Ka is also the world's tallest roller coaster reaching 456 feet before plunging back down at over 120 MPH once again.
Kingda Ka
The World's Fastest Sport
Yes we know there is car racing and boat racing and plane racing an maybe even rocket racing, and those sports are fast, but we are strictly interested in human powered sports.
Jai-Alai is a game that originated in Spain and has been billed as the world's fastest sport with the ball leaving the cesta, a long, curved wicker scoop strapped to one arm, at speeds of up to 180 MPH.
Unfortunately for Jai-Alai, Badminton has taken over the title, a shuttlecock has been recently clocked at 332 KM/H or 206 MPH.
Jai-Alai
The World's Fastest Computer
Apparently the world's fastest computer is your brain, but with some of the people we know we really question that claim.
Omitting the brain, and being familiar with computers, we know that this page will probably be outdated by the time it loads on your computer, but as of 5:59 AM PST on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 the world's fastest computer is the Blue Gene/L.
The Blue Gene/L was developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and can perform at up to 360 teraflops with a sustained performance of 280.6 teraflops.
Just to give you an idea how fast that is, the XBOX 360 performs at about 1 teraflop which is 1 trillion calculations per second.
Blue Gene/L
Fastest Animal in the World
Cheetah
113 KMPH
Fastest Motorcycle in the world
If you enjoy seeing motorcycles go really fast make sure you don't miss the annual BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
During the 2006 BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials Denis Manning and the BUB Racing team set the new absolute motorcycle land speed record when rider Chris Carr piloted the BUB #7 Streamliner 354.832 MPH on the down run and 346.939 on the return, for an average of 350.885 MPH.
The next BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials are set to be held September 2 - 6, 2007.
The BUB #7 Streamliner
Fastest Bird in the World
The world's fastest bird is also the world's fastest animal on our planet.
When the Peregrine Falcon spots prey it goes into a controlled dive easily reaching speed of 200 MPH or 320 KM/H.
The fastest speed the Peregrine Falcon reached ever recorded was an amazing 242.3 MPH or 390 KM/H.
The Peregrine Falcon
Fastest Car in the World
Ever since the car was invented people wanted to go fast which soon enough resulted in the competition for the land speed record.
Back on December 18, 1898 Frenchman Achères, Yvelines set the first benchmark for the land speed record taking his electric Jeantaud Duc up to a head turning 39.24 MPH.
The current fastest car is the Thrust SSC which was driven by Andy Green for Richard Noble at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
In October 1997 Andy Green took the Thrust SSC up to an ear deafening Mach 1.02, which is 763.035 MPH of 1227.94 KM/H.
The Thrust SSC
Fastest Fish in the world
The world's fastest fish can be found throughout all the oceans of the world.
The world's fastest fish has been clocked at speeds over 68 MPH, which is quite a feat for a fish weighing up to 200 pounds.
The world's fastest fish is no other than the sailfish.
The Sailfish
Fastest Man in the world
The 100 meter dash is the race that determines the world's fastest man as it did in May 2006 when American Justin Gatlin posted 9.76 seconds, breaking the current record by 0.01 seconds and giving him the title of the world's fastest man.
Unfortunately for Justin Gatlin his reign as the world's fastest man was short lived as there was a scoring error and his time should have been rounded up to the nearest 1/1000 of a second instead of down as it was thus his time was adjusted to 9.77 seconds.
Justin Gatlin now shares the title of world's fastest man with Jamaican Asafa Powell who has also run a 9.77 second 100 meters.
Justin Gatlin & Asafa Powell
Fastest Woman in the world
The world's fastest woman is American Florence Griffith-Joyner.
Florence Griffith-Joyner set the current world's record for the 100 meters in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 16, 1988 covering the distance in a mere 10.49 seconds.
Florence Griffith-Joyner
Fastest Plane in the world
The X-43 reached Mach 9.8 (12144 KMPH) but it was an unmanned flight.
X-43 Aircraft
The X-15 reached Mach 6.72, but it is a rocket powered aircraft.
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, which made it's first flight on December 22, 1964, is still considered to be the world's fastest airplane reaching Mach 3.2 or 2,193.167 MPH in July 1976.
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird holds many speed records including flying from New York to London, covering 3,461.53 miles in 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds, averaging 1, 806.95 MPH.
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
Fastest Train in the World
The world's fastest train is Shanghai's maglev train.
Manglev stands for magnetic levitation, a technology that has been around since 1984 but has not been used commercial due to the costs.
Shanghai opened an 18.6 mile stretch in March, 2004 running from the airport to downtown which the train covers in 7 minutes 20 seconds while peaking out at 268 MPH or 431 KM/H.
