Highest parachute jump
The thinner the atmosphere, the less resistance it offers, so the faster you can fall through it. On 16 August 1960 Captain Joseph Kittinger of the US Air Force leapt from an open balloon gondola at 102,800ft - that’s up in the stratosphere - to make the highest parachute jump ever. Wearing a pressure suit and trailing a small drogue ’chute to prevent a flat spin, reached a maximum speed of 982.4kph (Mach 0.9) as he passed through 90,000ft.

Speed of sound
At this picture of an American F/A-18 Hornet - taken over the Pacific Ocean on 7July 1999 - illustrates, going fast involves parting the air.The density of air gets thinner as altitude increases, but the speed of sound in air at sea level is about 344 metres per second, equivalent to 1232kph. Acousticians who still think in Imperial units use the rule of thumb that sound travels one foot per millisecond (one thousandth of a second).

Fastest on rails
Col John P Stapp of the USAF was blasted to 1011kph in five seconds in Sonic Wind I, a rocket-powered sled, on 10 December 1954. It was the fastest manned vehicle ever to travel on rails. A water splash braked him from his top speed in a barely credible 1.4sec.

Space rockets
To escape the earth’s gravitational pull, any earth-launched projectile, whatever its size, has to be fired at escape velocity - about 40,000kph - or higher. Vehicles that carry their power with them - like rockets - can be more leisurely. The Saturn V that launched Apollo 13, for instance, reached 8480kph at first-stage separation, 23,464kph at second-stage separation and 26,448kph at orbital insertion.

Falling bombs
Barnes Wallis is best remembered as the inventor of the bouncing bomb used in the Dambusters raid. But just as remarkable were his earthquake bombs. The 5454kg Tallboy and 10,000kg Grand Slam were so highly streamlined that, when dropped from 25,000ft, they would exceed the speed of sound and bury themselves deep in the ground exploding, causing a seismic shock like an earthquake.

Fleet of foot
On land the fastest bird is the ostrich, which can sprint to 72kph - about the speed of the fastest racehorse. Few quadrupeds can beat it comprehensively, except the cheetah, the fasted land animal of all, which has been timed at 112kph. By comparison even the fastest humans are slowcoaches. Top sprinters - like Olympic gold medallist Maurice Green - achieve their peak speed around 60 metres into a 100m race, topping 40kph.

Speeding bullet
High-velocity rifle rounds travel faster than the speed of sound. Soldiers are trained to listen for the distinctive crack-thump - the crack of the bullet’s shockwave followed by the thump of it being fired - from which the distance of the attacker can be estimated. Modern infantry rifles typically have muzzle velocities of around 3000 feet per second (fps) or 3272kph. Some specialist rifles, usually smaller calibre, achieve more than 4000fps (4363kph).

Fastest Lap
Keke Rosberg holds the record for the fastest qualifying lap - an average speed of 257.48kph set at Silverstone in 1985 in a Williams-Honda FW10.

Fastest wind
The fastest wind speed ever measured, 509kph, was recorded using Doppler radar inside one of the tornadoes that struck Oklahoma City on 3 May 1999. The tornado killed four people and destroyed 250 homes.

Fastest aircraft
The fastest aircraft ever built in respect of sustained high speed was the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. On 6 March 1990 an SR-71 set a new transcontinental speed record, completing the 3846-kilometre journey from the west to east coasts of the US in 67 minutes 54 seconds, an average speed of 3398kph.