Frank237
Absent Comrade
F-105 Thunderchief. I worked on the weapons systems ,Way back in the early 70's. So have a soft spot in my heart for the Thud's.
What Is Your All Time Favorite Fighter Airplane?
- Thread starter Gulfecho
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Gulfecho
Member
The SR71 Blackbird. Flown faster than a 30.06 bullet. Incredible they retired it!
A4 Nimble little joker
T38/F5
P-80 Lord those things were beautiful against the sky
P-51 Ultimate prop plane
Any Grumman 'Cat'
Ok, F-106 is an interceptor, but I ha to mention it.
Fokker D VII
Honorable mention F4 Phantom. Great plane but misused being designed for nuclear delivery made a much better bomber than a fighter.
T38/F5
P-80 Lord those things were beautiful against the sky
P-51 Ultimate prop plane
Any Grumman 'Cat'
Ok, F-106 is an interceptor, but I ha to mention it.
Fokker D VII
Honorable mention F4 Phantom. Great plane but misused being designed for nuclear delivery made a much better bomber than a fighter.
I believe the fighter version was the A-12 and the SR -71was the recconissonance version. Wasn't the A-12 first and only around for a short while?
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cmort666
Member
As I recall, a huge number of the deaths involved Luftwaffe pilots.
The Luftwaffe tried to turn the F-104 into a miniature F-105 with disastrous results.
twodog max
Member
P 47 Thunderbolt
cmort666
Member
I don't believe that the fighter version went into service as by the time it was ready, it had no potential adversaries.
cmort666
Member
A few modern copies have been built recently. I believe they use GE engines inside of nacelles sized accurately for the original Junkers Jumo engines.
REM 3200
US Veteran
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31FordA
Member
Although the SBD wasn't a fighter, it did manage a handful of air to air kills during the war. It had two forward firing machine guns in addition to the tail gun. In the hands of a skilled and aggressive pilot it was capable of holding it's own.
Will Carry
Member
What a fantastic time to be flying. In the 1930s planes were coming off the assembly line obsolete. So many great planes! No one has mentioned the ME-109, which Chuck Hawks believes has enough merit to be called the greatest fighter of all time. The early ME109s dominated the sky over Spain and the late war ME-109-K had a top speed of 447mph and could easily out run a P-51D and had big guns to boot. That is ten years of hard fighting. German fighter units would not allow Nazis in their groups until the very end. According to the book "A Higher Call" about an ME-109 ace who escorted a crippled B-17 out of Germany because he was answering to a higher calling. Buy it and read it, true stories are the best.
Cardboard_killer
Member
Fokker Eindecker. Because it was the first.
Don't for get our allies
The Panavia Tornado is one mean son of a gun. At the time it was built the Tornado had the best terrain following radar ever developed.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2OdtdPuqE4[/ame]
The Panavia Tornado is one mean son of a gun. At the time it was built the Tornado had the best terrain following radar ever developed.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2OdtdPuqE4[/ame]
Rockrivr1
Member
Another vote for the F4 Phantom. Worked on them for a few years before converting to the FA-18. For me nothing compares to an F4 in full burner being catapulted off the deck!
wlewisiii
Member
Pre-WWII: Boeing P-12/F4B The best and most numerous of the biplane fighters in the Army. The Curtis up thread was pretty, but the were only 46 of them bought while Boeing built 533 for both the Army and Navy.
WWII: Easily the P-40. Fast enough, more manuverable than given credit for and sturdy, it held it's own till the P-47 & P-51 came along.
Post War: Douglas A-4 Skyhawk Perhaps technically not a fighter but Heinemann's Hot Rod was a nearly perfect little jet.
WWII: Easily the P-40. Fast enough, more manuverable than given credit for and sturdy, it held it's own till the P-47 & P-51 came along.
Post War: Douglas A-4 Skyhawk Perhaps technically not a fighter but Heinemann's Hot Rod was a nearly perfect little jet.
cmort666
Member
A mediocre plane that created a concept.Fokker Eindecker. Because it was the first.
It just needed to exist in order to be a dire threat.
The Sopwith Camel that's shaped like a doghouse. Curse you Red Baron!
Bozz10mm
US Veteran
Of the old WWII fighters, I like the P38 and P51. Modern day it's the F14 and F15.
As a kid during WWII, my buddies liked the P-51 but to me, the P-38 Lightning was my bird. USAF after Korea, but in Japan (Itazuki) and the F-86F was my favorite and the F-86D (interceptor with rocket pod) was a great bird (had an afterburner). The "Fs" came back from patrol with smoked gun ports from time to time. Helped phase in the F-100s before I was transferred to SAC and saw the last B-36 leave Carswell and the first B-52 come in. In today's world, the Warthog, is the equivalent of the old Timex - "takes a licking and keeps on ticking". So many winners - so many great pilots.
Still remember my dad's buddy, who was a tail gunner in a B17, talk about the run over Berlin in Jan. 1945 and the first time he saw one of these.
The ME262, the one that started the jet age.
The ME262, the one that started the jet age.
Kernel Crittenden
US Veteran, Absent Comrade
The post-war Westland Wyvern was a beautiful fighter plane. A 3,560 hp Armstrong Siddeley Python turboprop engine, two 4-blade Rotol contra-rotating propellers, designed with a British sense of proportion.....
Snapping Twig
Member
Yes, of course, and I stand corrected.
F4 Phantom. My dad used to build them a MD when I was a kid.
They were one of the first Mach 2 fighters and were in active service from '58 all the way up until '96. 38 years is a hell of a run for a fighter.
They were one of the first Mach 2 fighters and were in active service from '58 all the way up until '96. 38 years is a hell of a run for a fighter.
Yep, the A-7 was a gunfighter, and had best safety record of any Vietnam era Fighter Aircraft, the F-8 with the variable incidence wing from which it was derived had one of the worst?
Lots of great answers, and great airplanes, (you guys went "far afield"), but there is only one Queen, the F-22 Raptor, nothing else, past, present, or future even comes close.
Someone mentioned the competition, they are working on the T-50 and the J-20, and while those aircraft have been designed to meet the Raptor, they are each far below the performance level of the F-22.
Very L/O, very fast, (Mach 1.8) supercrise, and very high altitude, as the outgoing Air Force Chief of Staff put it?? nothing else on the Planet can pull 6Gs at 50,000, That's all that LockMart Goodness along with those PW F-119s with thrust vectoring for "supermaneuvering". the Raptor has it all, you'll be dead, and won't find out about it until until you read your name in the OBITs
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ContinentalOp
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I guess I'm the only one who likes the AV-8B...?
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VFZaKowFNs[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VFZaKowFNs[/ame]
JavierLaurido
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After watching "Wings of the Luftwaffe" on the Discovery channel (available on youtube), you realise that german planes where years ahead of all other allied nation aircrafts. The Me 262, the Arado, the Me 163 komet, the Heinkel jet, the FW 190T etc. Dident even have comparable counterparts on the allied side.
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