Highest altitude by a winged aircraft (FAI-verified)

On 4 October 2004, experimental test pilot Brian Binnie (USA) reached an altitude of 112,010 m while piloting Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne. He took off attached to White Knight, piloted by Mike Melvill, who was the pilot of the first privately funded manned space flight earlier that year. White Knight and SpaceShipOne took off from Mojave Spaceport in the Mojave Desert, California, USA. After reaching an altitude above 13,300 m SpaceShipOne detached from White Knight and ignited its rocket engine. After the engine consumed its fuel, the spacecraft coasted to its maximum altitude before returning to Earth using its feathered configuration and landing like a glider back at Mojave Spaceport. Binnie’s flight won the Ansari X Prize for Scaled Composites and beat the altitude record previously set by Joseph Walker (USA) in an X-15 on 22 August 1963. The world record was ratified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.