World War II Aircraft Ranked-by-Speed, Fastest-to-Slowest

Aviation | Second World War

While certainly not the single-most important quality of every aircraft of WW2, speed undoubtedly helped to create a winning design.

While speed was not the essential design quality to successful aircraft of the war, it was certainly a benefit. The list below showcases World War 2 aircraft ranked by their reported/projected maximum speed values (including experimental designs). Bear in mind that the listed speeds below pertain to a specific production variant rather than to an entire family of aircraft (i.e. there were faster P-51 variants than our listed D-model, which is often considered the definitive Mustang). Additionally, some developmental aircraft appearing during the war are featured in this list including many 'paper-only' German jet- / rocket-powered designs.

There are a total of [ 742 ] World War II Aircraft Ranked-by-Speed, Fastest-to-Slowest entries in the Military Factory. Entries are listed below in alphanumeric order (1-to-Z). Flag images indicative of country of origin and not necessarily the primary operator. Entries are listed below by maximum reported speed (descending) by specific production model.

Also consider World War II Fighters Ranked-by-Speed, World War II Bombers Ranked-by-Speed and World War II X-planes Ranked-by-Speed.