[Closed] The Best Fighter Jet Ever!

Great thread. I was brought up with the Lightning, Vulcan, Phantom and in particular harrier as my dad was an airframe technician in the RAF.

Sat in a few cockpits but never flew in anything, although air shows and close up on base viewings of aircraft was always a special treat as I grew up.

Not seen that lightning print before and quite taken by it. Have asked the author through the site linked above about getting one either on acrylic or backlit as I think it would look awesome if it is high enough resolution.

Not expecting it to be cheap and will post back with what I get if anybody is interested.

Jaguar for me, because I had a model plane of it. Not sure if I got it because I already liked the look of it, chicken and egg... My mum worked a bit on the procurement of it when she was in the MOD, but mostly I just like the high wing stance I think, and the raspberry ripple paint scheme

If anyone finds themselves near Salisbury and it manages to reopen then worth checking out the Boscombe Down Aviation museum. Can get hands on with quite a few aircraft and makes for a great few hours.

Having worked on them I'm a bit biased towards the Typhoon.

Seen what it can do in real life and even now it still blows me away the power and manoeuvrability of the thing.

Worked on Jags too so that's a close second.

I had an uncle who was Station Warrent Officer at various RAF bases in the late 70s through the 80s. Had many a happy holiday loitering in hangers and at the ends of runways at night. A particular favourite was Lightenings going off at midnight, full blat then vertical, also Phantoms, Jags and then Tornados. Sent an ATC summer camp riveting Jags back together and was rewarded with an experience flight in a Jag 2 seater, yes the Pilot did his job and I was sick!

Jaguar for me, because I had a model plane of it. Not sure if I got it because I already liked the look of it, chicken and egg… My mum worked a bit on the procurement of it when she was in the MOD, but mostly I just like the high wing stance I think, and the raspberry ripple paint scheme

It was probably the misiles ON TOP OF THE BLOODY WINGS

Useless fact: the only RAF Phantom ‘kill’ was… an RAF Jaguar.

I was working at Warton where they had the initial conversion unit for Typhoons entering service with the RAF. I was talking to a colleague who was programme lead to say that the CO of the ICU was doing his final flight in a Typhoon and it would be worth seeing that lunchtime. Normally protocol is to take off gently because of the close proximity of housing. Naah, he gave it full afterburners on reheat half way down the runway, stood it on his tail and shot straight up into the blue sky - the downwash set off all the car alarms in the car park. I'd watched the test pilots practise their airshow routines countless times, but this was just awesome.
Happened to be at Doncaster for a meeting and just by chance, they took the Vulcan out for what was the first flight of the final season.
Worked at Farnborough for a few years - office window overlooked the airfield and used to watch the practise flying for the airshow - Russion test pilots were awesome.

Two 'airshow' memories that I'll always remember as a kid:

Lightning stood on its tail after a takeoff at Manchester Airport (I guess he was staging for a local gig from there). Maybe I'd seen this loads of times at Finningley et al but I guess it was the novelty of it being at Manchester

Starfighter (German??) at RIAT in the 80's ripping a hole in the flightline with a sonic boom.

The Vulcan party trick of standing upright and flying straight up with the taps wide open ripped runways to shreds!

(Lived at Finningley!)

Vulcan memories here - my grandads house was the end of Waddington runway area and local playpark was on the other end...
I remember lying on the grass in the summer and not only being deafened by the noise but physically feeling like the earth was vibrating under me... *That* howl as well.

We also had an Italian(from memory?) Harrier put down in the farm fields behind our house in Cumbria, one day around easter 1990...Cue a few hours of RAF truck's coming and going and off he went again. Cool. As.

Being next to the only red roof building on the valley, we also know that the jets heading into Warcop ranges would use that to line up as they headed in. Sadly including the night of the Milburn Tornado crash, another sound that will stay with me.

Not exactly the best fight.
Got shot down from time to time but I like it ... SU-25 Frogfoot.

We also had an Italian(from memory?) Harrier put down in the farm fields behind our house in Cumbria, one day around easter 1990…Cue a few hours of RAF truck’s coming and going and off he went again. Cool. As.

Did you ever figure out where the Mediterranean looking kid in the village came from?

Useless fact: the only RAF Phantom ‘kill’ was… an RAF Jaguar.

IIRC the only RAF Lightning kill was an RAF Harrier.

BAE Systems website!

Hunter FTW IMO

A Viggen doing its thing.

Another Phantom...

https://www.google.com/search?q=f4+phantom+vs+concrete+wall&oq=phantom+vs+conc&aqs=chrome.3.0j69i57j0l3.10661j1j7&client=ms-android-huawei&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#

Did you ever figure out where the Mediterranean looking kid in the village came from?

I was at school when it came down. Apparently he left the thing in the field and strolled over a fence into the hotel garden next door and ordered a coffee...

By contrast the RAF guards on scene when I got home were very twitchy and were shouting at my brother and I in the tree at the end of our garden...We were made to go indoors when it took off.

I have it very good authority, the Typhoo could have been an extraordinary aircraft - had they finished developing it properly. See Rafale for the finished version...

Typhoon for me, probably because I used to see them pretty much daily at work. I remember trying to cross the runway at Warton and the barrier coming down, next thing I knew there was this deafening roar and a Typhoon was taking off as it passed me. I was 19 and in a little Peugeot 106 and thinking it was going to be shook apart.

Last summer I had to chance to get up close and watch the first UK F35s on set off on deployment to Cyprus. They're an incredible looking machine up close, although much smaller than I thought it would be.

Russion test pilots were awesome.

These two seem pretty cool under pressure.

I'm fan of the Phantom, Viggen, Foxbat etc, but it has to be the Skyhawk.
They used to give the yanks the run around in war games by flying a lot lower than the yanks were comfortable with.

I used to work next to Woodburne airbase & they used to surprise us fly by's & touch & goes.
Though not half as surprising as an Orion doing a fly by.

Some classic FAA Phantom / Buccaneer / HMS Ark Royal action right here:

The Squadrons Are Coming

but it has to be the Skyhawk.

One of Dad's US navy buddies has something daft like 5000 hours on the Skyhawk, and he will fight you to death to defend it...Fun Fact: The Skyhawk has such long undercarriage to clear the Nuclear bomb it was designed to carry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B43_nuclear_bomb

Also there was a member of each squadron of Skyhawks, whose job it was to practice the delivery method for the '43...so on each cruise there was some-one who could fly "the" mission

I also forgot - my wife's uncle Ray was Hunter pilot then a Hawker/BAE test & development pilot.

Not only had he the coolest job in the world, with stories of Tornado and Hawk development work, plus lots of testing of new kit on multiple machines, but owner of a splendid RAF moustache...

Spoke with the BBC Queens English, with finest plum in his throat. A lovely man and very shy of speaking of his career.

Sadly passed away a few years back.

Klunk also love the Draken, from Denmark so saw them a lot as a kid.
Couple of years ago I talked to a Danish pilot who had flown F-16 and Draken he missed the Draken as it was so nice to fly and so much power.

Sharkey Ward in Sea Harrier Over The Falklands recalls taking Harriers to "Top Gun" and giving the Yanks a beating - put it on a wing, point the nozzles down and turn inside anything else aloft...

Love Harrier, Lightning, Phantom, Eagle and Tomcat.

These two seem pretty cool under pressure.

Mig 29 arguably best jet fighter ever, lots made, very effective in air and cost wise.

The Paris 89 bird strike was another brilliant bit of piloting. I believe the pilot got a medal for managing to avoid the crowd using the remaining engine.

Seem to remember the theory that the explosion helped inflate his parachute, otherwise it would have been too low to stop his fall.

No idea how true.

Re flying Skyhawks...Steve Singleton ( My dad's buddy from the US Navy) used to tell how hard it was to land on the carriers, this being the early 60's there was nothing like the flying aids that Navy pilots have now, He learned to fly onto them even before the reflected lights system, literally hands on stick and throttle and VFR to the deck...Also because the US navy at the time had all these ex-ww2 carriers like USS Hancock that were pretty small by comparison to now, landing these things was a pretty nerve wracking ordeal.

Landing at night, on a rocking ship in bad weather with a B43 strapped to your belly...pretty bloody terrifying...

the mirage family are good looking paper aeroplane jet

had this as a 1/32 kit as a kid, couldn't believe it could get of the ground carrying that !

anyone remember the cheesy french tv show about two mirage pilots ?? or am i imagining it

The stats prove the F15 to be the best fighter but for looks I'd have to go with the Hunter.
One memory that has always stayed with me was at an early 70's Farnborough air show (the very wet one when the Concorde prototype made an appearance), we were walking along the flight line when a Lightning came from behind us and he hit reheat and just pulled it vertical. Absolutely staggering at the time.
The thing with jets is when you sit in a Vampire or Hunter you realise that compared to the 40's piston aircraft they replaced the all round visibility is so much better - the pilots must have found it like night & day especially on the ground.

The thing with jets is when you sit in a Vampire or Hunter you realise that compared to the 40’s piston aircraft they replaced the all round visibility is so much better – the pilots must have found it like night & day especially on the ground.

And much quieter, practically silent by comparison to sitting right behind a 1500hp V12.

The performance of the Lightning was staggering for the time. It really wasn't until the F-15 that it was surpassed, amazing for an aircraft designed in the 1950's

Always loved these though:

The twin canted tail just made it look almost sci-fi.

Not quite an X-wing but close enough!

And much quieter, practically silent by comparison to sitting right behind a 1500hp V12.

And the vibration......I was very ill in a Dakota

It really wasn’t until the F-15 that it was surpassed, amazing for an aircraft designed in the 1950’s

Cold War aircraft were staggering, even now. Some (like the SR71 Blackbird) still hold aviation records today. The push for one-upmanship, technological breakthroughs, materials engineering really made massive leaps in such a short space of time.

And they were designed on paper, with pencils and drawing kits, not with the aid of supercomputers!

Landing at night, on a rocking ship in bad weather with a B43 strapped to your belly…pretty bloody terrifying…

Especially with John McCain around. This is one of the many Skyhawks he destoryed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire#Unstable_ordnance_received

The ejector seats can be used from the ground.

I always thought it was a pity the F20 Tigershark never found a buyer.

Surprised not more love for the Tornado. Proper, long-standing workhorse and one of the last jets that could be fixed with a spanner and enthusiasm

need more boomage...

my dad did his national service as a vampire engine fitter.

Les Chevaliers du Ciel, Klunk:

The stats prove the F15 to be the best fighter

Only if you believe the American stats. I don't and give the prize to the MIG 15.

The F-20 was built specifically as an export aircraft. When it was was developed the US wanted a simpler fighter / multirole aircraft that they could sell to their allies without worrying about giving away their really high end tech.

So they designed the F-20, which was itself based on the F-5 to be a simpler aircraft without all the bells and whistle (mainly avionics) of other US fighters at that time.

Then US policy changed and it was decided that they would flog the F-16, F/A-18 and even the F-15 to pretty much any ally who had the cash.

The F-20 was left with no customers

On the subject of mirages...

(That's from some french film - if you watch that youtube video, you've seen all the good stuff in the film! None of it is CGI as well...)

Surprised not more love for the Tornado. Proper, long-standing workhorse and one of the last jets that could be fixed with a spanner and enthusiasm

I posted a pic on page 2!

It was the aircraft I grew up with really - my grandfather lived near Peterborough and there were (still are) loads of RAF bases round there so we used to get Harriers, Buccaneers, Jaguars, Lightnings, Phantoms all the time. But that was right at the end of their life, they were all being phased out and replaced with the Tornado so that was massively new and exciting. I mean, to me as a young kid they were all massively exciting to the extent that my very traditional grandparents gave me a right telling off when I leapt up from the dinner table and rushed to the window to watch planes go over. Didn't get any pudding for that.

But yeah, Tornado from then on really. Harriers lasted until late 2000's or so.

They just look right:

[img] [/img]

The Sea Vixen FAW2 looked mean, but as a fighter I'm not sure how good it was and the losses due to accidents were somewhat alarming.

While we're on the subject of memories, I remember a Harrier landing in front of me on a roof in Birmingham city centre, it must have been around 1970 but Google yields nothing.

This is a very old video and not the best quality but set to that music, it's very impressive. French Mirage fighters again.

The performance of the Lightning was staggering for the time.

There’s more to a fighter than straight line performance...the lightning wasn’t a turner. Nor was the Tornado F3. They were both essentially missile platforms-interceptors. A true fighter needs to turn.

Warthogs may be tough but I saw one crushed like a tin can by a crocodile the other night

One memory that has always stayed with me was at an early 70’s Farnborough air show (the very wet one when the Concorde prototype made an appearance), we were walking along the flight line when a Lightning came from behind us and he hit reheat and just pulled it vertical. Absolutely staggering at the time.

I was at that show with me Dad!