Fédération Aéronautique Internationale

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The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) is a standard setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics. This includes man-carrying vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned vehicles (such as model aircraft and UAVs). It is also the international governing body for air sports. It was founded in 1905.

[edit] Records

Among the FAI's responsibilities are the verification of record-breaking flights. For a flight to be registered as a "World's Record," it has to comply with the FAI's strict rules, which include a proviso that the record must exceed the previous record by a certain percentage. Since the late 1930s, military aircraft have dominated some classes of record for powered aircraft such as speed, distance, payload, and height, though other classes are regularly claimed by civilians. See also Air speed record.

Some records are claimed by countries as their own, even they fail to meet FAI standards. These claims are not granted the status of official records. An example of failing to meet FAI requirements but still getting recognition was the world's first spaceflight of Yuri Gagarin. The FAI initially did not recognise the achievement because he did not land in his Vostok spacecraft, but later it recognised that Gagarin was the first human to fly into space. The FAI then established "The Yuri A. Gagarin Gold Medal", which has been awarded since 1968. [1]