Canberra Pilot Breaks World's Height Record

Pilot Mike Randrup (left) and Chief Engineer Walter Shirley look at the engine of their rocket-engined Canberra aircraft at Luton Airport, UK, after reaching a height of 68,00 feet - about 13 miles - a new high altitude record, 30th August 1957. The previous record is 65,876 feet set up by another Canberra two years ago. The plane is fitted with a Napier Double Scorpion rocket engine, and it was flown from Luton Airport by 44 year old Michael Randrup, Napier's chief test pilot. A camera filmed the flight instruments for examination, afterwards at the Royal Aeronautical Establishment at Farnborough. The record was achieved over the South Coast just out to sea. (Photo by Derek Berwin/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)