The Miz Obliterates The Sound Barrier ... In a FIGHTER JET

Nothing fake about this ... former WWE champ The Miz in a real life Navy fighter plane ... BREAKING THE SPEED OF SOUND ... and TMZ has the footage.

It all went down in Virginia Beach last week ... when Miz crawled into an F/A-18 fighter for the WWE's annual "Tribute to the Troops" show, which will air on NBC and the USA network on December 19th and 22nd.

We're told Miz had to complete a rigorous training process before he was cleared to fly with Squadron VFA-211 -- aka the "Fighting Checkmates." Once he got in the air, Miz hauled ass through the atmosphere at a speed of Mach 1.2.