Your Top 10 Favorite Fighter Aircraft.

[PS]

Now I'm a bit rusty, but...


Apache Helicopter
A-10 Thunderbird (I think?)
Warthog (BUFF ring a bell?)
F18 Superhornet
F22 Raptor
F15 Eagle
Harrier
P51
F4 Phantom (did this thing fight in 'nam?)
The Avro Arrow

 

[skicrush]

Now I'm a bit rusty, but...


Apache Helicopter
A-10 Thunderbird (I think?)
Warthog (BUFF ring a bell?)
F18 Superhornet
F22 Raptor
F15 Eagle
Harrier
P51
F4 Phantom (did this thing fight in 'nam?)
The Avro Arrow

A-10 Thunderbolt II, also known as the Warthog.

And yes, the Phantom was their workhorse in Nam.

 

[RACECAR]

It never went into production, and even the amazing prototype no longer exists, but the Sukhoi Su-37 Super Flanker was one of the most remarkable aircraft of all time. Nothing has ever matched it's phenomenal agility:

"Any time, any place" were the words of Sukhoi's Chief Designer, Mikhail Simonov, as he challenged any US aircraft to a mock combat after being questioned about the relevance of the Su-37's Thrust Vectoring (TV) maneuvers in combat, and it is a challenge which has not been taken up. The Su-37 Super Flanker is yet another development of the Su-27 which now seems basic in comparision! The main improvement/addition in this development is the addition of the AL-37FU thrust vectoring engines.

When the Su-37 was displayed at Farnbrough in 1996 it stole the show. Under the control of Sukhoi's Chief Test Pilot, Eugeny Frolov, the Su-37 performed some astounding maneuvers. These included the "Super Cobra", demonstrated for the first time. In this move the aircraft enters with a speed of 400 kph and is pulled through to an alpha of 135 deg, then recovered to the vertical using thrust vectoring and held in place for 4 to 6 seconds. After hanging in the air the nose is allowed to fall to the horizontal position and the aircraft emerges from the maneuver at 150 kph with no loss of height!

Another was basically using the TV to flip the Su-37 onto it's back and then to rotate it upright and continue on level in the direct opposite direction from which it had come, all in not much more than the length of the whole aircraft!

The most impressive maneuver though, was the "kulbit" (somersault). With an entry speed of 350 kph the aircraft is flipped onto it's back (a full 180 degrees) facing the opposite direction, inverted and practically stationary. Then after 'pausing' there TV is used to complete the 360 deg somersault with a nose down angle of 30 degrees and an exit speed of just 60 kph! While this is impressive to read it has to be seen to be believed.

I've seen a video of the Super Flanker in action, and it boggles the mind. It sure made a splash at the air show, but that was all it will be remembered for, unfortunately...

I seen it in action and that is by the best performance since the AV-8B Harrier.

 

[Razorback]

Top 10 Fighters.

Me-262. The first jet and beautiful with it.

F4E Phantom. Classic plane of the conflict in southeast asia.
The plane Steve Ritchie became an ace in.(F4C,D?)

Su-15 Flagon. Probably not any Korean's choice after Sakhalin 1983.

F100. First supersonic plane in level flight????

F101. Long bird. Gorgeous photo-recon machine.

F104. Missile with a man it.

English Electric Lightning. Pair of skyflash(?) and incredible climb rate.

Mig-15. Classic Korean War jet with British designed engine.

F14. Tomcat and those Pheonix missiles. Beautifully designed fleet defender.

Su-27,35,37. Flanker and Super Flanker. Damn shame that didn't go into prod.

 

[RACECAR]

Su-27,35,37. Flanker and Super Flanker. Damn shame that didn't go into prod.

if russia wasn't a poor country, we would have seen hundreds of those, maybe thousands.

 

[smellysocks12]

My favorite:

Mostly because of its incredible stackload of weaponry, especially because of the incredible machine gun cannon up front.

 

[Gil]

You can't deny the power of a few hundred brave twentysomethings in their Spitfires stopping the might of the German blitzkreig.

It was the English Zero: fast, light, maneuverable. It was also beautiful to look at. And anyone who's ever heard a Merlin wail will understand the "big fuss" without needing explanation. It literally makes my hair stand up.

Further, the actual question was your top ten favorite aircraft

I have to admit to being a sucker for the Corsair and the Mustang.
I actually sat in a 'stang once at an airshow in Tennessee.

I wasn't alive at the time, but the planes of WWII are the most interesting planes around. To me.
The guys that flew them had to get "up close and personal" in dogfights. There were no "fire and forget" missiles like there are today.
To me the fighter pilots of WWII were kind of like Batman. He's no super-hero. He's just a guy who puts on the suit, and goes out and gets the job done. They had to go out there and tangle with the enemy up close. Now an F-14 can launch missiles at 6 air targets while 40+ miles away, and haul-ass back to the Carrier for a reload, before knowing if they even hit anything, or get shot at.
It still takes a big set of brass ones to strap into a fighter/attack plane. But, it isn't as scary as it was when you really had to get close enough to nearly be able to see the whites of the guys eyes.
As an aside I also have a fondness for military helicopters too.
I am quite fond of the UH-1 Iriquoi helicopter, The AH-62 Apache, and my all time favorite (for versatility) The SH-2 Sea Sprite helo.
The SH-2 brought us our mail, and it dropped sonar buoys so I could look for subs during my working hours.
I also have a certain fondness for the Hughes 500 helo. It's a pretty bird, fast and functional. Also, we almost shot one down of the coast of Panama back in the '80's. It belonged to the CIA, and they didn't want to identify themselves, but did want to land on our flight deck. Suffice it to say that with two .50 cals and an M-60 trained on them, they came to see things our way.

 

[PS]

What were those Swedish jets from the 70's?

 

[RACECAR]

What were those Swedish jets from the 70's?

the Saab viggens(I think).

 

[Grand Prix]

The 1957 Avro Arrow

Awesome plane. Too bad the Canadian government spent their money on ICBM defense instead.

 

[Blackbird.]

I'm olde skool.

Mitsu Zero
FW-190
Supermarine Spitfire
ME-109
Hawker Hurricane
Me-262
Lockheed Lightning (smokes, cant remember the denomination...P-38?...feeble memory)
Thunderbolt (ditto...P-47?)
P-51 Mustang
Wildcat (ditto... )
Hellcat (ditto... )
And some Yaks...


Damn, I need to go pick up some of my old books again

P-51 Mustang.. Good man.

 

[Delirious]

Top however many i like

1. F-14 tomcat (i love the movie topgun and the look just takes my breath away)

--brain/eye/ear orgasmic--

2. F/A-18 hornet (ID4, another good movie)
3. F-22 raptor (did a presentation on it when i went to a university [aeronautics class])
4. B-2A bomer (love the design)
5. F-16 Falcon (another good design of art and air superiority)
6. Mig-29 Fulcrum (probably the best non-american fighter jet)
7. Boeing 747 (Why not? big jets=teh awesomeness)
8. P-51 Mustang (gatta love world war 2 history)
9. F-117 Nighthawk (i just love the look of a stealth jet)
10. AH-64 apache (how can you not like this?)
[if helicopters dont count then the a-10 warthog...gatta love a huge 30mm gun for a nose]

i love aviation, been addicted to microsoft flight simulator since 5.1 came out (like 1993?)
i must have at least 50 hours on that sim and 30 on fighter jet sims (15 on star wars if that counts?)

i also live 45 minutes away from wright patterson air force base/museum (dayton, ohio area) and just love going there whenever i can get a chance to