[Closed] The Best Fighter Jet Ever!

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!

2 of the coolest fighters ever.
https://flic.kr/p/VysvEX

There’s more to a fighter than straight line performance…the lightning wasn’t a turner.

My dad (flew for the RAF in Hunters, Lightnings, Phantoms) said that of all three, the Lightnings was both the best and worst A2A, it had huge amounts of surplus energy that didn't need to be particularly "managed" so you could force people to fight on your terms, or get out of a fight relatively unscathed. but if you let things get low and slow, or were tempted to fight on other peoples terms, you were pretty much a sitting duck, or just no hope in that environment. The airplane he always hated fighting against was the Buccaneer, he maintains to this day that they defy the normal rules of physics that apply to everyone else.

Edit, d'oh forgot, The Lightning didn't have the tightest of turns, but it also didn't slip, and had enough energy on tap to just push it around, so as a opponent you've either got to turn inside it, and hope that you keep up, and within range and missile envelope. Otherwise the Lightning just ****s off into the distance.

I assume we're all desperate for the release of TopGun 2 then?

I assume we’re all desperate for the release of TopGun 2 then?

I feel the need...

There’s more to a fighter than straight line performance…the lightning wasn’t a turner.

Their job was Cold War stuff. Get up to height as fast as possible and shoot down the hoards of invading Soviet bombers that would be coming over the horizon. The "acceptable loss rates" were astronomical - indeed it was expected that many would simply run out of fuel and drop out the sky with the pilot being rescued from the North Sea.

They were literally not designed with anything else in mind. High and fast, shoot down bomber, bug out (if you still had fuel).

Protect the V Bomber bases.

If the Bombers needed 4 minutes to scramble I guess that the Fighters had to survive for 4 minutes and 1 second.

The Lightning was designed to be an interceptor rather than a fighter - hence why it's pretty much a case of strapping a pilot and weapons onto a couple of big jet engines.

Oh, and like of Fighter pilots of his generation, the airplane they all had nightmares about? The MiG-21. Fast, small, difficult to spot, good weapons, good turning, robust. My dad reckoned that in good hands the 21 could hold it's own against pretty much anything NATO could throw at it.

Nothing like getting the wheels up early at 0:38!

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.

One landed at Pebble Mill once, I think, but pretty sure it wasn't on the roof.

I assume we’re all desperate for the release of TopGun 2 then?

Yes! 🙂

Never knew too much about the Buccaneer, amazing to think it was used successfully in the first Gulf war something like 40 years in service.

Pilots seemed to like it.

Never knew too much about the Buccaneer, amazing to think it was used successfully in the first Gulf war something like 40 years in service.

Have a read of John Nichol's book, Team Tornado.
He was one of the guys shot down in Desert Storm and held captive but on release, he transferred from bomber to fighter (Tornado F3) and between him and his former pilot John Peters, they wrote a second book about general RAF life on their respective Tornado squadrons and it's got some amazing stories in there, including a chapter on Buccaneers.

Nothing like getting the wheels up early at 0:38!

Yeah you don't want to get them up TOO early though!

The Lightning was actually designed as a high speed research aircraft....adapted to be an interceptor. The Tornado F3 was originally a low level bomber, adapted to an interceptor role to fulfil our orders (we ordered way too many bombers).

The Typhoon was designed specifically to intercept the Bears over the North Sea; a friend wrote the spec for it. It’s been successful ful in other roles, however.

It's a terrible shame that the Bruntingthorpe site mentioned in the previous video has been purchased by a car storage business, who apparently are paid 50p per car per day to store thousands of car on the runways etc, very lucrative business, it seems. As a consequence all the aircraft preservation groups have been given notice to leave, inc the VC10 group and the LPGs, although hopefully the latter may be able to find a different area of the site. The fast taxi day last August was truly awesome (and ear-splitting!) but may have been the last one. C-19 has cast doubt on this years show and there certainly won't be another afterwards. Assuming it does go ahead this year I urge you all to go and see these Cold War beasts firing up in anger for their very last time.

Yeah you don’t want to get them up TOO early though!

Eeek! I think I read somewhere that that was caused by a failure of the 'weight off wheels' sensor.

I'm not sure if this contravenes forum rules etc but this link gives a pdf version of an SR71 book that's currently £400-odd on Amazon.

hols2
Member

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

You know this is complete alt-right conspiracy theory horseshit, right?

Not a fighter, but this video! Skip to 1:20!

I’m not sure if this contravenes forum rules etc but this link gives a pdf version of an SR71 book that’s currently £400-odd on Amazon.

I have read that courtesy of a linked PDF on this very forum from several years ago, and it is mighty fine. 😉

Cheers creakingdoor, got in there before it's shut down. There's another plane book in the link that I've also downloaded.

I don't think it's going to affect the sales of Sled driver as I think he only sells a few each year at a high cost.

This is an interesting read - he seems to suggest the Lightning is better than you think in a turning fight.

https://www.xs420.com/lightning-memories-bill-beardsley.html

That SR71 book linked to above is fantastic. Well worth a read.

I'm surprised there has only been one mention each for the F22 and the Eurofighter Typhoon. The F15 might be a fine aircraft for its generation but in air to air combat against the most modern platforms it would probably not fair so well. This assumes that the tactics for each have been fully developed, there have been several examples in training, of older less sophisticated fighters besting the latest technologically more sophisticated jet fighters, however once the tactics have been developed the more modern fighter would win on the vast majority of occasions.

There is a reason that new fighter platforms are developed, if they were no better than their predecessors they wouldn't make it into full production. Of course cost is a factor, hence the F22 production facilities have largely been dismantled.

Surprised the Widowmaker has only had one mention. Looks like something Steve Zodiac would have designed and as for that spine tingling howl while taxiing.
They used to get maintenance work done at Prestwick in the early seventies and many are the weekends I spent dossing in the golf course bunkers just so I could drool.

Surprised the Widowmaker has only had one mention.

Are you referring to the F104? That thing looks like it shouldn't even get airborne!

I have always liked the Saab Gripen capable, low cost and developed by a relatively small nation.
I had the good fortune to be working at the Saab factory on the day of the Gripen E first flight, 2016?
Impressive to see and put my customers in a good mood to sign off my work. 😀

That thing looks like it shouldn’t even get airborne!

I thought that was the problem in German service?

The Starfighter was a handful, but I wouldn’t try this in anything else (or, for that matter, a Starfighter😮)

Video posting fail!

I thought that was the problem in German service?

Indeed, staying airborne also proving a challenge.
Hence the nickname.

Here's that Starfighter video from above.

You know this is complete alt-right conspiracy theory horseshit, right?

You know his father was stationed at this base when this happened, right? Just stating the facts, you draw your own conclusions.

A much loved album. Played surprisingly frequently.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Lockheed_and_the_Starfighters

Tonkas hold a special place, but times change.

JSF is such a huge leap forward in capability.