NationStates Jolt Archive

What, in your opinion, has been the most successful fighter aircraft ever built? (Within the context of their time period, of course.)

I am all about the Fokker triplanes.

The Kittyhawk Flyer! Complete air dominance at the time. Nothing could match it. :p

The Sopwith Camel

P52 Mustang? I don't know enough, but I always hear d they were good. I suppose any modern USA plane should be in the running.

Whatever planes that the Finnish flew in World War two must have been pretty solid (Fokker DXIIIs I believe).

p40...

Spad VII. Mean, mean beast in the right hands.
http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/collections/artifacts/aircraft/SPADVII.shtml

Well... It all depends on what purpose the fighters is built for. Purpose built dogfighters excels on that aspect while fighter-bombers are multi purpose and as such, splits their attention between areas. So there's really a whole lot of sub-categories going on here:) Interceptors, pure fighters, multi-purpose and so on... My personal favorite though is the F-16 Fighting Falcon. It's light, fast and can do almost anything and it's by far the prettiest aircraft ever constructed.

Token vote for both the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire. Both were highly adaptable, tough and were used for a hell of a long time, which is testament to their manufacture. I always hold them + the P-52 Mustang (the one with the Rolls-Royce engine and not the crappy original Mark I) on the same level for the amount they did during WW2.

Well, some of these have already been mentioned but:

Sopwith Camel
P-51 Mustang
Spitfire
Focke Wolfe 190
F-4 Phantom
F-16 Fighting Falcon
F-14 Tomcat

The Sopwith Camel
That's a biplane, right? If so, then absolutely yes. Biplane fighters are nice and romantic. Jet fighters are boring.

The F22. I don't care if no one bought it.

The F22. I don't care if no one bought it.

i bought the computer game F22...

Answering my own thread, my all-time favorite is the P-51 Mustang. That fighter dominated all other prop fighters of WWII. Admittedly, that's probably because it was DESIGNED during WWII, and therefore they knew what they were up against, but it was one heck of a great aircraft, multirole and fast. Those suckers even took on German jets and held their own.

My second choice would be the F/A-18 Hornet.

The US Navy (I Think) Hellcat was one of the most successful fighters in WWII based on its survivability to kill ratio. It was widely mass produced towards the end of the war, and was the dominant fighter in the Pacific theater. Sure, the mustang, the lighting bolt, the corsair, and my fav. U.S.A.F. "Abrocadabra" were more appealinig fighters, but the Hellcat was just what its name implied.

Excluding the new generation of fighters (Is it the F-22 of F-23)...

Hands down "the best" would have to be the F-15 Strike Eagle.

I believe it's won every battle it's ever flown. (Mainly by the Israelis, but used extensively by coalition forces in Desert Storm and the "Shock and Awe" campaign in Desert Storm II.)

Is rated as the fastest fighter jet (over Mach 2)

Has the payload capacity to be in the air for hours on end (External Fuel tanks, plus armament.)

It can be configured to carry just about every weapon system in the US Arsenal -- including tactical nuclear weapons.

I belive it was the F-15G version that had the most sophesitcated avionics package in a US fighter. (Again, not including the new F-whatever)

Many of these characteristics are true about the F-14 Tomcat as well. I just happen to live outside an Air Force Base, and have seen the Eagles close up in person. :)

The F-16 is also a very good aircraft. It's been modified to carry a hell of a lot of weapons. And I belive they were used by Israel to take out the Nuke plant at Osiark back in 1981. They just aren't quite as fast as the Eagle, and don't have as long as a range as the Eagle. And in mock dogfights, the F-15 usually beats the F-16, given similarly trained pilots.

The F-16 was designed to be cheaper to build and maintain, and also as a good plane to sell to our allies. The F-15 does have a horrible maintenance record, from what I understand.

For sheer combat kills it has to be the Me-109.

Bf 109- For massive kills.
Spitfire-For is useablity and prowess
P-51-For its toughness
A6M For kicking a tonne of ass.
MiG-21 (for its cost to ass kicking ability back in its day...considering it cost 1/4 of a F4 phantom)
f-15 for its record.

NOT on the list IMHO
F-22. Its retarded expensive.
MiG-29. I love it, and think its a beautiful plane, buts its too limited in role and range...which brings me to the F/a-18 which I disqual for the same reasons.

F-22. Its retarded expensive.

It's still almost god damn impossible to shoot down. It scores a 34-1 kill ratio against the F-16 in simulated tests.

In early 2006, Lieutenant Colonel Jim Hecker, commander of the 27th Fighter Squadron (FS) at Langley commented to Jane's Defence Weekly (18th jan. 2006) that:

"We killed 33 F-15Cs and didn't suffer a single loss," he said. "They didn't see us at all." after an exercise with 8 F-22's in Nevada in Nov. 2005.

The albatross

Foward firing machine guns? hell yeah (In 1915, that was rididcoulously advanced technology. It tore through the allied air forces before they got rid of their "pushers")



And Bir Nation, The F-15 is good, but it's won every battle because the USA and the Isralies fight natiosn with horrible air forces.

In a recent trainign excersise in India, Su-30's scored a kill ratio of 9:1 over the F-15's

The Messerschmitt planes were faster and better designed - they just didn't have enough planes, fuel, and pilots.

Yep, Fokker E III is the one. Ugly, not nearly as well remembered as the later triplanes, but it single-handedly destroyed the Allied Air Forces.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Fokker_EIII_210-16.jpg/300px-Fokker_EIII_210-16.jpg

Other than that, the Spitfire, the MiG 21 and the F16.

The thing about the F-22 is --

You can't see it.

By the time you do see it, it's too late.

Having an F-22 in a dog fight, is like bringing a sawed off shot gun to a fist fight.

But damn they're expensive. And did anybody catch the news report yesterday or the day before where the canopy didn't open? The pilot was stuck in the cockpit for 5 hours. They finally had to call the fire department to cut open the canopy. And they estimate the canopy to be about $180,000.

Yes... it is gold plated...

Many aircraft canopies are -- to reflect the heat and radiation of the radars.

Oh, I forgot:

For a great cost to kills ratio and amazing maneuverability and range for a prop fighter I nominate the Mitsubishi A6M Type 0.

F8F Bearcat.

Smallest possible fuselage, the engine of the F4U, and 4 20 mm cannon.

Obsolete as soon as it flew, but it was a hot rod.

Definnetly the A-10 Warthog has got to be mentioned. The nickname "Tankbuster" sounds awesome. and no to mention the Vulcan cannon on the front of the plane.

the most modern prop plane in ww2 was th corsair.
it kicked royal ass against japanese and koreans.
he gull wing bird tops my charts as the coolest plane ever.:mp5:

the most modern prop plane in ww2 was th corsair.
it kicked royal ass against japanese and koreans.
he gull wing bird tops my charts as the coolest plane ever.:mp5:

the most modern prop plane in ww2 was th corsair.
it kicked royal ass against japanese and koreans.
he gull wing bird tops my charts as the coolest plane ever.:mp5:

Corsairs are in the running as well. In my oppinion the best wwII plane made.

Definnetly the A-10 Warthog has got to be mentioned. The nickname "Tankbuster" sounds awesome. and no to mention the Vulcan cannon on the front of the plane.

It's a nice plane, but the Thunderbolt isn't a fighter. It would be totally wasted by just about anything in air-to-air combat.

Looks like Pappy got lucky today and posted thrice :D

I really like the Luft 46 airplanes and concepts - a lot of "what if"s but still, the allies build many of their planes after the German prototypes.

My favourite personal fighter - CF-18, it may not be quite up to spec with the american hornets, but the fact that its a Canadian pilot more than makes up for it (okay, so I'm unfairly biased, so sue me).

What about the Harrier? I realise that its not technically a fighter but the using the jump jets in the middle of a dog fight? Thats just nuts. Also theres a russian fighter that should be mentioned. Its about the equivilent of the F-14 but it has the ability to flip onto its back for a missile shot and its faster. Not entirely sure what its called though.

What about the Harrier? I realise that its not technically a fighter but the using the jump jets in the middle of a dog fight? Thats just nuts. Also theres a russian fighter that should be mentioned. Its about the equivilent of the F-14 but it has the ability to flip onto its back for a missile shot and its faster. Not entirely sure what its called though.
Su-37.

Though actually the Su-30 is a wiser choice as it is in actual production, and Western avionics make it into a real killer.

Spitfire = teh awesome

Save our arse in WWII as far as I'm concerned. But then my knowledge of factors affecting the outcome of the Battle of Britain may be somewhat limited. I'm pretty sure it rawked the Luftwaffe's collective sawks though.

Hmm...

P-38 needs to be included, imo. In the pacific, where it was mainly put, it fought very well, it bombed well, it did recon well, it simply did very well in very many cases.

F-16 is up there. Cheap, incredibly capable plane, still capable of fighting many aircraft.

Mirage F1, I would say. Cheap, very capable with the Super matra, iraqi F1's did very well against Iranian F-14's, which is a feat worth boasting.

F-22, its simply the best fighter plane in the world right now by a lot, and will probably maintain this title for a while to come.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y223/GermanNightmare/Snoopy50.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y223/GermanNightmare/Snoopy50.jpg


The best pilot in the world right there.

YF-23 "Black Widow II"
The YF-23 and the YF-22 fought it out for a defense contract. Although the YF-23 was strictly better IMO, the F-22 got the nod for being cheaper. Yes, something did cost more than the F-22.

The ACI-73 Aquila ASF was pretty good.

While the F-78 may have been more maneuverable and carried more missiles, the Aquila has all that cool stealth stuff.
































































Or did you mean real fighters?

The Spad, for it's time nothing else compares, speed kills.