What is your all time favorite military fighter jet?

The coolest plane ever:

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The F-14 Tomcat!

I was on a destroyer, (USS Somers, DDG 34) we were following the USS Constellation (aircraft carrier) around the Indian Ocean, and I never got tired of watching them. Thankfully, we often had the job of "plane guard", which was following fairly close in case of a plane going in the water. Coincidentally, it also was the only time I ever stood watch with an M-14. They always had a gunners mate on the rescue team in case of sharks.

A close second would be the A-4 Skyhawk. We had one of those do a close fly-by, it was pretty impressive!
 
SR 71 hands down.
It does qualify as it's prototype designation was YF 12
 
I'm a phan of the phabulous phantom as well. Here are some of my models I've built.
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Hmm, he did say FIGHTER jet. I would say the F4 but I did the government QA of F15 center fuselage and final assembly at McDonnell Douglas (later Boeing) so that is my favorite fighter.
 
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.......a few more....
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Mine is the McDonald Douglass F4C Phantom II. This baby
is loaded for bear.

There are two aircraft at the USAF museum at Wright-Pat that I got to know firsthand, pulling security on. That F-4 was Robin Olds', Ubon RTAFB, 1967, and the other is the SR-71 from Beale AFB, 1966. Both places were "interesting".

I have offered to donate my body (when I'm done with it) to the Museum, stuffed and mounted in a Security Police uniform, and put next to either plane for old times' sake.

So far no response.

No personal SR-71 photos...If I had tried at the time I'd still be in solitary at Fort Leavenworth yet.
 

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The most heavily armed, longest range, fastest, most colossal jet fighter EVER built!

The second pic shows the massive scale of this BEAST.
 

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Overall, I guess the F-15.

But I admire the F-86 and the Hawker Hunter, and a friend's husband flew Sea Harriers, and they did good work.

The F-100 never quite grabbed my heartstrings. The Mirage III did, especially in South African service. It evolved into the Cheetah, used also by Israel as the Kfir.
 
I think without doubt we owe a little bit to the Germans, They were the innovators of jet flight.

I think the Horton HO229 is just an incredible design and years ahead of its time.... Although it was still in its prototype stages, just imagine if they were in full production?
 
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There are two aircraft at the USAF museum at Wright-Pat that I got to know firsthand, pulling security on. That F-4 was Robin Olds', Ubon RTAFB, 1967....

I couldn't take my eyes off Scat XXVII when I last visited Wright-Patterson...thanks very much for your service! :)
 

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