This fighter jet could fly at the edge of space and it's not American...

When you think of high-altitude fighter jets pushing the boundaries of Earth’s atmosphere, you might imagine cutting-edge American aircraft like the F-22 or F-35. But the title for one of the highest-flying jets ever built belongs to a Russian machine from the Cold War era and it came shockingly close to space.

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 “Foxbat” was designed in the 1960s by the Soviet Union to intercept American bombers and spy planes. Built for raw speed and altitude, the MiG-25 could reach a jaw-dropping altitude of over 123,000 feet (37+ km)—almost at the Kármán line, the edge of space recognized by many experts at around 100 km (328,000 ft).

In test flights, modified versions of the MiG-25 reached altitudes that pushed the boundary between the stratosphere and space. While it didn’t officially cross into outer space, it flew high enough that pilots could see the curvature of the Earth and the darkness of space above. That’s higher than most military or civilian jets will ever get.

The MiG-25 was not designed for dogfights or tight turns, it was built to outrun and outclimb threats. With twin turbojet engines and a stainless-steel body (because aluminium would melt at those speeds), it flew at Mach 2.83, nearly three times the speed of sound. It still holds a place among the fastest and highest-flying jets ever made.

Even today, no operational U.S. fighter has officially flown higher than the MiG-25. Its ability to nearly touch space, combined with its Cold War mystique, makes it a legend of aerospace history. While dangerous, and even deadly under certain conditions, the MiG-25 proved that the Soviets could build a machine that danced dangerously close to the final frontier, without ever needing NASA.