NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Fighter aircraft

A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for attacking other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed to attack ground targets, primarily by dropping bombs or other weapons. Fighters are comparatively small, fast, and maneuverable. Fighter aircraft are the primary means by which armed forces gain air superiority. At least since World War II, air superiority has been a crucial component of victory in most modern warfare, particularly "conventional" warfare between regular armies(as opposed to guerrilla warfare), and their acquisition and maintenance represent a very substantial proportion of military budgets in militaries that maintain modern fighter forces. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 528 pixelsFull resolutionâ€Ž (2,708 Ã— 1,788 pixels, file size: 2. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 528 pixelsFull resolutionâ€Ž (2,708 Ã— 1,788 pixels, file size: 2. ... The A-10 Thunderbolt II is an American single-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft developed by Fairchild-Republic for the United States Air Force to provide close air support (CAS) of ground forces by attacking tanks, armored vehicles, and other ground targets, also providing a limited air interdiction role. ... The North American F-86 Sabre (sometimes called the Sabrejet) was a transonic combat aircraft developed for the US Air Force. ... P-38 redirects here. ... The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range single-seat fighter aircraft that entered service with Allied air forces in the middle years of World War II. The P-51 became one of the conflicts most successful and recognizable aircraft. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Military aircraft are airplanes used in warfare. ... Flying machine redirects here. ... For other uses, see Bomber (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Bomb (disambiguation). ... Air superiority is the dominance in the air power of one side air forces of another side during a military campaign. ... Guerrilla redirects here. ...

Introduction

The word "fighter" did not become the official British term for a single seat fighter until after the First World War. In the RFC/RAF such aircraft continued to be called "scouts" into the early nineteen twenties. In the French, Italian, German and Portuguese languages the term used (and still in use) literally means "hunter", while in Russian the fighter is called "истребитель" (pronounced "istrebitel") which is literally "exterminator". The U.S. Army labeled their fighters as "pursuit" aircraft until the late nineteen forties.

Fighters were developed in response to the fledgling use of aircraft and dirigibles in World War I for reconnaissance and ground attack roles. USS Akron (ZRS-4) in flight, November 2, 1931 An airship or dirigible is a buoyant lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air. ... â€œThe Great War â€ redirects here. ...

As aerial warfare became increasingly important, so did control of the airspace. By World War II, fighters were predominantly all-metal monoplanes with wing-mounted batteries of cannons or heavy machine guns. By the end of the war, turbojets were already beginning to replace piston engines as the means of propulsion, and missiles to augment or replace guns. Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare, including military airlift of cargo to further the national interests as was demonstrated in the Berlin Airlift. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Turbojets are the simplest and oldest kind of general purpose jet engines. ...

For historical purposes, jet fighters are sometimes classified by generation. The generation terminology was initiated by Russian defense parlance in referring to the F-35 Lightning II as a "fifth-generation" plane.^{[citation needed]} A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for attacking other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed to attack ground targets, primarily by dropping bombs. ... The F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, a multi-role aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air-to-air combat. ...

Modern jet fighters are predominantly powered by one or two turbofan engines, armed primarily with missiles (from as few as two on some lightweight day fighters to as many as eight to ten on air superiority fighters like the Su-37 Flanker or F-15 Eagle), with a cannon as backup armament (typically between 20 and 30mm in calibre), and equipped with a radar as the primary method of target acquisition. A day fighter is a fighter aircraft equipped only to fight during the day. ... The Sukhoi Su-37 (NATO designation: Flanker-F) is a Russian multi-role jet fighter aircraft. ... F-15 redirects here. ... The word caliber (American English) or calibre (British English) comes from the Italian calibro, itself from the Arabic quâlib, meaning mould. ...

Piston engine fighters

World War I

The word “fighter” was first used to describe a two seater aircraft, with sufficient lift to carry a machine gun and its operator as well as the pilot. The first such “fighters” belonged to the “gunbus” series of experimental gun carriers of the British Vickers company which culminated in the Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus of 1914. The main drawback of this type of aircraft was its lack of speed. It was quickly realised that an aircraft intended to destroy its kind in the air needed at least to be fast enough to catch its quarry. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2338x1397, 183 KB)A Sopwith Camel 2F1 bi-plane at the Imperial War Museum in London. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2338x1397, 183 KB)A Sopwith Camel 2F1 bi-plane at the Imperial War Museum in London. ... The Sopwith Camel Scout is a British First World War single-seat fighter aircraft that was famous for its maneuverability. ... The Imperial War Museum is a museum in London featuring military vehicles, weapons, war memorabilia, a library, a photographic archive, and an art collection of 20th century and later conflicts, especially those involving Britain, and the British Empire. ... Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 2004. ... The Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus was the first operational British aircraft purpose-built for air-to-air combat, making it debatably the worlds first true fighter aircraft. ...

Fortunately another type of military aircraft already existed, which was to form the basis for an effective "fighter" in the modern sense of the word. It was based on the small fast aircraft developed before the war for such air races as the Gordon Bennett and Schneider trophies. The military scout aeroplane was not initially expected to be able to carry serious armament, but to rely on its speed to be able to reach the location it was required to “scout” or reconnoitre and return quickly to report – all the time making a difficult target for AA artillery or enemy gun-carrying aircraft. British “scout” aircraft in this sense included the Sopwith Tabloid and Bristol Scout – French equivalents included the light, fast Morane-Saulnier N. â€œFlakâ€ redirects here. ... The Sopwith Tabloid was a biplane sports aircraft, one of the first to be built by the Sopwith Aviation Company. ... The Bristol Scout was a simple, single seat, rotary-radial engined biplane that functioned as one of the very first UK-built and designed fighter aircraft for the British armed forces in the first two years of World War I, even though it was originially intended to be a sporting... RFC Morane-Saulnier Type N Bullet. ...

In practice, after the actual commencement of the war the pilots of small scout aircraft armed themselves with pistols, carbines and an assortment of improvised weapons with which to attack enemy aircraft – proving to be as successful in their efforts as specifically designed “fighter” aircraft.

It was inevitable that sooner or later means of effectively arming “scouts” would be devised. One method was to build a “pusher” scout such as the Airco DH.2, with the propeller behind the pilot. The main drawback was that the high drag of a pusher type's tail structure meant that it was bound to be slower than an otherwise similar tractor aircraft. The other was to mount the machine gun armament outside the arc of the propeller. Given the tendency of early machine guns to jam (and hence the need for the pilot to have access to the gun’s breech) as well as determining the aiming point, this was a stopgap solution at best. Despite this, a machine gun firing over the propeller arc was to remain in service from 1915 (Nieuport 11) until 1918 (Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 with its purpose built Foster mounting). A British WWI-era F.E.2b pusher. ... The Airco DH.2 was a single-seat biplane pusher aircraft which operated as a fighter during the First World War. ... The Nieuport 11 was designed in response to the Fokker Scourge of 1915. ... The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 was a British biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. ... In early 1916 Sergeant Foster of No. ...

So clear was the need to arm a tractor scout with a forward firing gun whose bullets actually passed through the propeller arc that inventors were busy trying various methods in both France and Germany. Hanz Schneider had patented a device before the war to interrupt the machine gun's stream of bullets (by preventing it from firing when the propeller's blade was in the way) before the war and Anthony Fokker developed this into the Interrupter gear that would make the Fokker Eindecker such a feared name over the Western Front despite it being an adaptation of an obsolete pre-war French Morane-Saulnier racing monoplane. Simultaneously, Roland Garros (the first French 'Flying ace') was also working on a Interrupter gear, which attempted to time the firing of the individual rounds similarly when the propellor wasn't in the way. Unfortunately his choice of machine gun was poor - the gas operated Hotchkiss wasn't predictable enough to be able to time the firing and as a desperation measure he fitted metal wedges to protect the propeller's blades. At the same time the RNAS was taping up the blades on its scouts so that any rounds that damaged the prop wouldn't cause it to fail before the aircraft could be landed, with the fabric from the tape hopefully holding the blade together. Schneider may refer to: Schneider (surname) for the name and people Schneider, Indiana, a small town in the United States. ... Anton Herman Gerard Anthony Fokker (April 6, 1890 â€“ December 23, 1939), was born in Kediri (Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia) and became a Dutch aircraft manufacturer. ... Damaged propeller from a Sopwith Baby aircraft circa 1916/17 with evidence of bulletholes from a machine gun fired behind the propeller without an Interruptor. ... The Fokker Eindecker was a German First World War monoplane single-seat fighter aircraft designed by Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker. ... Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the contested armed frontier between lands controlled by Germany to the East and the Allies to the West. ... AÃ©roplanes Morane-Saulnier is a French aircraft manufacturer formed by Raymond Saulnier and the Morane Brothers in October 1911. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The term synchronizer can mean more than one thing. ...

The success of the Eindecker started a cycle of improvement among the combatants, building ever more efficient single seat fighters. The Albatros D.I of late 1916 set the classic pattern followed by almost all such aircraft for about twenty years. Like the D.I, they were biplanes (only very occasionally monoplanes, or triplanes). The strong box structure of the biplane wing allowed for a rigid wing that afforded accurate lateral control, essential for fighter-type maneuvers. They had a single crew member, who flew the aircraft and also operated its armament. They were armed with two synchronised Maxim-type machine guns, which were much easier to synchronise than other types – firing through the propeller arc. The gun breeches were typically right in front of the pilot’s face. This had obvious implications in case of accidents, but enabled jams (to which Maxim-type machine guns always remained liable) to be cleared in flight and made aiming them much easier. The Albatros D I was a German fighter airplane used during World War I. It was designed by Thelen, Schubert and GnÃ¤dig, in an attempt to create an airplane superior to the then-dominant Nieuport 11 (BÃ©bÃ©) and Airco D.H.2. ... Reproduction of a Sopwith Camel biplane flown by Lt. ... A monoplane is an aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. ... A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three sets of wings, each roughly the same size and mounted one above the other. ... An early Maxim gun in operation with the Royal Navy 1895 . ...

Notable aircraft: (with year of introduction) Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (3008x2000, 3134 KB) Summary Nachbau der Fokker DR1 auf der ILA 2006. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (3008x2000, 3134 KB) Summary Nachbau der Fokker DR1 auf der ILA 2006. ... The Fokker Dr. I Dreidecker (triplane) was a World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz and built by the company led by Anthony Fokker. ... ILA2004 display area The Berlin Air Show ILA2006 belongs to the most important aerospace trade-fairs in the world and takes place in Berlin, Germany. ... Red Baron may refer to: Manfred von Richthofen, World War I flying ace Red Baron, a popular computer game Red Baron, an arcade game by Atari. ...

Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... The Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus was the first operational British aircraft purpose-built for air-to-air combat, making it debatably the worlds first true fighter aircraft. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... The Fokker Eindecker was a German First World War monoplane single-seat fighter aircraft designed by Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Nieuport 11 was designed in response to the Fokker Scourge of 1915. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... The Airco DH.2 was a single-seat biplane pusher aircraft which operated as a fighter during the First World War. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... The Albatros D.III was a highly successful single seat, biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service (LuftstreitkrÃ¤fte) and the Austro-Hungarian Air Service (Luftfahrtruppen) during the First World War. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Nieuport 17 was a biplane fighter aircraft manufactured by Nieuport, and prominent during the World War I era. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... The Fokker Dr. I Dreidecker (triplane) was a World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz and built by the company led by Anthony Fokker. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The SPAD S.XIII was a French biplane fighter aircraft of World War I, developed by SociÃ©tÃ© Pour LAviation et ses DÃ©rivÃ©s (SPAD) from the earlier highly successful SPAD S.VII. It was one of the most capable fighters of the war, and one of the... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Nieuport 28 (N.28C-1) was a French biplane fighter aircraft flown during World War I, built by Nieuport and designed by Gustave Delage. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... The Sopwith Camel Scout is a British First World War single-seat fighter aircraft that was famous for its maneuverability. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 was a British biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... Fokker D.VII Fokker D.VII Fokker D.VII preserved in the Deutsches Museum The Fokker D.VII was a late World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz at the Fokker company. ...

1919-1938

Fighter development slowed between the wars, the most significant change coming late in the period, when the classic WWI type machines started to give way to metal monocoque or semi-monocoque monoplanes, with cantilever wing structures. Given limited defense budgets, air forces tended to be conservative in their aircraft purchases, and biplanes remained popular. Designs such as the Gloster Gladiator, Fiat CR.42, and Polikarpov I-15 were common even in the late 1930s. Up until the mid-1930s, the vast majority of fighter aircraft remained fabric- (or partially fabric-) covered biplanes. Boeing P-26 Peashooters were introduced into the Army Air Corps in 1933. ... Boeing P-26 Peashooters were introduced into the Army Air Corps in 1933. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661) is a major aerospace and defense corporation, originally founded by William Edward Boeing. ... The Boeing P-26, nicknamed the Peashooter, was the first all-metal production fighter aircraft and the first pursuit monoplane used by the United States Army Air Corps. ... Monocoque (French for single shell) is a construction technique that uses the external skin of an object to support some or most of the load on the structure. ... A schematic image of two cantilevers. ... Gloster Gladiator photographed in England in 2002 The Gloster Gladiator was a biplane fighter, used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, as well as a number of other air forces, during World War II. The aircraft had a top speed of around 414 km/h. ... Fiat CR.42 Falco The Fiat CR.42 Falco (Falcon) was a biplane which served as the primary fighter aircraft of Italys Regia Aeronautica at the outbreak of World War II. // Development The epitome of a biplane fighter, CR.42 represented evolution of the Italian designs starting with Fiat... The Polikarpov I-15 Ð§Ð°Ð¹ÐºÐ° Seagull was a Soviet fighter aircraft that first flew in October 1933 by V.P.Chkalov. ...

Fighter armament eventually began to be mounted in the wings, outside the arc of the propeller, though most designs retained two synchronized machine-guns above the engine (which were considered more accurate). Rifle-caliber guns were the norm, with .50 caliber (12.7mm) MGs and 20mm cannons deemed "overkill." Considering that many aircraft were constructed similarly to WWI designs (albeit with aluminum frames), it was not considered unreasonable to use WWI-style armament to counter them. There was insufficient aerial combat during most of the period to disprove this notion. Aluminum is a soft and lightweight metal with a dull silvery appearance, due to a thin layer of oxidation that forms quickly when it is exposed to air. ...

The Rotary engine quickly disappeared, replaced by the stationary Radial engine. Aircraft engines increased in power several-fold over the period, going from a typical 180 HP in the 1918 Fokker D.VII to 900 HP in the 1938 Curtiss P-36. The debate between the sleek in-line engines versus the more reliable radial models continued, with Naval air forces preferring the radial engines, and land-based forces often choosing in-line units. Radial designs did not require a separate (vulnerable) cooling system, but had increased drag. This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The radial engine is an internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders point outward from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel. ... Fokker D.VII Fokker D.VII Fokker D.VII preserved in the Deutsches Museum The Fokker D.VII was a late World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz at the Fokker company. ... The Curtiss P-36 Hawk, or as it was originally called, the Curtiss Hawk Model 75, was a US fighter aircraft of WW2. ...

Some air forces dabbled with "heavy fighters" (called "destroyers" by the Germans). These were larger aircraft, sometimes adaptations of light or medium bomber types, and usually with two engines. Such designs typically had greater internal fuel capacity (thus, longer range) and heavier armament than their single-engine counterparts. In combat, they proved ungainly and vulnerable to more nimble single-engine fighters. For a particular Air Force, see List of air forces. ... A light bomber is a military bomber aircraft which, when compared to other bombers, is relatively small and fast; such aircraft will probably not carry more than one ton of ordnance. ... A medium bomber is a bomber aircraft designed to operate with medium bombloads over medium distances; primarily to distinguish them from the much larger heavy bombers and smaller light bombers. ...

The primary driver of fighter innovation, right up to the period of rapid rearmament in the late thirties, were not military budgets, but civilian aircraft races. Aircraft designed for these races pioneered innovations like streamlining and more powerful engines that would find their way into the fighters of World War II.

At the very end of the inter-war period came the Spanish Civil War. This was just the opportunity the German Luftwaffe, Italian Regia Aeronautica, and Soviet Red Air Force needed to test their latest aircraft designs. Each party sent several aircraft to back their side in the conflict. In the dogfights over Spain, the latest Messerschmitt fighters (Bf-109) did well, as did the Soviet Polikarpov I-16. The German design had considerable room for development, however, and the lessons learned in Spain led to greatly improved models used in World War II. The Russians, whose side lost in the conflict, nonetheless determined that their planes were sufficient for their immediate needs. I-16s were later slaughtered en masse by improved German models in Operation Barbarossa. For their part, the Italians were satisfied with the performance of their Fiat CR.42 biplanes, and being short on funds, continued with this design even though it was borderline obsolete. Not to be confused with the Spanish Civil War of 1820-1823. ... The Deutsche Luftwaffe or (German: air force, IPA: ) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ... Insignia applied with a decal on the tail of the RÃ¨gia Aeronautica aircraft (reconstruction). ... Soviet Air Force, also known under the abbreviation VVS, transliterated from Russian: ВВС, Военно-воздушные силы (Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily), formed the official designation of the airforce of the Soviet Union. ... (Bf 109 was the official Reichsluftfahrtministerium designation, though some late-war aircraft actually carried the Me 109 designation stamped onto their aircraft type plates. ... Polikarpov I-16 at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2003 The Polikarpov I-16 was an advanced Soviet fighter aircraft when it was introduced in the mid-1930s, and it formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force at the beginning of World War II. The diminutive fighter prominently featured in the... Combatants Germany Romania Finland Italy Hungary Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb Fedor von Bock Gerd von Rundstedt Heinz Guderian GÃ¼nther von Kluge Franz Halder Ion Antonescu C.G.E. Mannerheim Giovanni Messe, CSIR Italo Garibaldi, ARMIR Iosef Stalin Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko Fyodor Kuznetsov... Fiat CR.42 Falco The Fiat CR.42 Falco (Falcon) was a biplane which served as the primary fighter aircraft of Italys Regia Aeronautica at the outbreak of World War II. // Development The epitome of a biplane fighter, CR.42 represented evolution of the Italian designs starting with Fiat...

Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Czech_Republic. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy. ... Fiat CR.42 Falco The Fiat CR.42 Falco (Falcon) was a biplane which served as the primary fighter aircraft of Italys Regia Aeronautica at the outbreak of World War II. // Development The epitome of a biplane fighter, CR.42 represented evolution of the Italian designs starting with Fiat... Image File history File links Flag_of_Sweden. ... Svenska Aero Jaktfalken (Gyrfalcon) was a Swedish biplane fighter, constructed in the late 1920s. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... General History The Bristol Bulldog was a Royal Air Force (RAF) single-seat biplane fighter designed during the 1920s by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, with over three hundred Bulldogs produced, that arguably became the most famous aircraft during the RAFs inter-war period. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Gloster Gladiator photographed in England in 2002 The Gloster Gladiator was a biplane fighter, used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, as well as a number of other air forces, during World War II. The aircraft had a top speed of around 414 km/h. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... The Hawker Fury was a biplane fighter design used by the RAF in the 1930s. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Boeing P-12 with Captain Ira Eaker The Boeing P-12 was an American pursuit aircraft that was operated by the United States Army Air Corps. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Japan. ... The Mitsubishi A5M was the worlds first monoplane shipboard fighter and the direct ancestor of the famous Mitsubishi A6M Zero. The Allied code-name was Claude; the Japanese Navy designation was Type 96 carrier-based fighter (九六式艦上戦闘機). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Netherlands. ... Fokker D.XXI Fokker D XXI planes in the Finnish air force during WWII. The Fokker D.XXI fighter was designed in 1935 for use by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) air service. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Poland. ... The PZL P.11 was a Polish fighter aircraft, designed in early-1930s by PZL in Warsaw. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... Polikarpov I-16 at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2003 The Polikarpov I-16 was an advanced Soviet fighter aircraft when it was introduced in the mid-1930s, and it formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force at the beginning of World War II. The diminutive fighter prominently featured in the... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... The Hawker Hurricane was a British single-seat fighter aircraft designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661) is a major aerospace and defense corporation, originally founded by William Edward Boeing. ... The Boeing P-26, nicknamed the Peashooter, was the first all-metal production fighter aircraft and the first pursuit monoplane used by the United States Army Air Corps. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Brewster F2A Buffalo was an American fighter plane which saw limited service during World War II. In 1939, the F2A became the first monoplane fighter aircraft used by the US Navy. ...

World War II

Aerial combat formed an important part of World War II military doctrine. The ability of aircraft to locate, harass, and interdict ground forces was an instrumental part of the German combined-arms doctrine, and their inability to seize air superiority over Britain rendered an invasion infeasible. Erwin Rommel noted the effect of airpower: "Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success." Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Combatants Poland Germany Soviet Union Slovakia Commanders Edward Rydz-ÅšmigÅ‚y Fedor von Bock (Army Group North) Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group South) Ferdinand ÄŒatloÅ¡ (Field Army Bernolak) Strength 39 divisions 16 brigades 4,300 guns 880 tanks 400 aircraft Total: 1,000,000[1] 56 German divisions, 33+ Soviet... The PZL P.11 was a Polish fighter aircraft, designed in early-1930s by PZL in Warsaw. ... is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Flight Lieutenants sleeve/shoulder insignia Flight Lieutenant (abbreviated as Flt Lt and pronounced as flight lef-tenant, see Lieutenant) is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. ... The Heinkel He 111 was the primary Luftwaffe medium bomber during the early stages of World War II, and is perhaps the most obvious symbol of the German side of the Battle of Britain. ... For other uses, see Warsaw (disambiguation) and Warszawa (disambiguation). ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (3367x2112, 2695 KB) Supermarine Spitfire XVI at Duxford, September 2006. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (3367x2112, 2695 KB) Supermarine Spitfire XVI at Duxford, September 2006. ... The Supermarine Spitfire was a British single-seat fighter, which was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries during the Second World War, and into the 1950s. ... Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel ( ) (15 November 1891 â€“ 14 October 1944) was perhaps the most famous German field marshal of World War II. He was the commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps and also became known by the nickname The Desert Fox (WÃ¼stenfuchs, ) for the skillful military campaigns he waged...

This was the era of the fast, monoplane interceptor. The older biplanes, some of which (see Fiat CR.42) were quite maneuverable, were also too slow to compete and were phased out. Initial battles in 1939, such as the Soviet-Japanese Battle of Khalkhyn Gol (technically not part of WWII, but still of strategic importance to the conflict) and the German invasion of Poland were too brief to provide much feedback to the participants. The Battle of France gave the Germans ample opportunity to encounter British and French aircraft in combat, which overall went very well for the Luftwaffe. The Soviets got their noses bloodied by the outnumbered Finns (see Finnish Air Force) in the Winter War, with poor doctrine and training hampering the large Soviet formations.^{[citation needed]} Fiat CR.42 Falco The Fiat CR.42 Falco (Falcon) was a biplane which served as the primary fighter aircraft of Italys Regia Aeronautica at the outbreak of World War II. // Development The epitome of a biplane fighter, CR.42 represented evolution of the Italian designs starting with Fiat... For the Soviet Unions military action against Poland under the same alliance, see Soviet invasion of Poland (1939). ... Combatants France United Kingdom Canada Czechoslovakia Poland Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) Leopold III H.G. Winkelman Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di... The Deutsche Luftwaffe or (German: air force, IPA: ) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ... The Finnish Air Force (FAF) (Finnish: Ilmavoimat) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. ... Combatants Finland Soviet Union Commanders Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko Strength 250,000 men 30 tanks 130 aircraft[1][2] 1,000,000 men 6,541 tanks [3] 3,800 aircraft[4][5] Casualties 26,662 dead 39,886 wounded 1,000 captured[6] 126,875 dead...

The Battle of Britain pitted a very capable Royal Air Force against the veteran Luftwaffe pilots, some of whom had combat experience in Spain. The result was a victory for the British, with lessons learned on both sides. British fighters tore apart the lightly-armed German bombers (especially the Stuka dive-bombers), while the Messerschmitt Bf-110 was finally revealed as a failed concept and relegated to night-fighter and fighter-bomber roles. This article is about the World War Two battle. ... RAF redirects here. ... The Deutsche Luftwaffe or (German: air force, IPA: ) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ... Junkers Ju 87 Dive-Bombers The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was the most famous Sturzkampfflugzeug (German dive bomber) in World War II, instantly recognisable by its inverted gull-wings and fixed undercarriage. ... The Messerschmitt Bf110 (later Me110) was a twin-engine heavy fighter in the service of the Luftwaffe during World War II. History Based around the concept of the long-range Zerstörer or Destroyer Fighter the Bf110 enjoyed some success in the Polish and French campaigns. ...

Operation Barbarossa showed that strategic surprise made Soviet preparations woefully inadequate, and Red Air Force command had rendered any lessons learned from previous experience in Spain and Finland virtually useless. The Axis were able to destroy large numbers of the Red Air Force aircraft on the ground, and in one-sided dogfights in the first few days. However, by winter 1941 the Red Air Force was able to put together a cohesive air defence of Moscow, successfully interdict attacks on Leningrad and begin production of new aircraft types in the relocated semi-built factories in the Urals, Siberia, Central Asia and the Caucasus to replace the aging designs with advanced monoplane fighters such as the Yak-1, Yak-3, LaGG-3, and Mig-3) to wrest air superiority from the Luftwaffe. From 1942 significant numbers of British, and later US, fighter aircraft were also sent to aid the Soviet war effort, with the P-39 proving particularly effective in the lower altitude combat typical of the Eastern Front. From 1942 the Eastern Front became the largest area of fighter aircraft use in the World, used in all the roles typical of the period, including close air support, interdiction, escort and interception roles. Some aircraft were armed with weapons as large as 45mm cannon, and the Germans began installing additional smaller cannon in under-wing pods to assist with ground-attack missions. Combatants Germany Romania Finland Italy Hungary Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb Fedor von Bock Gerd von Rundstedt Heinz Guderian GÃ¼nther von Kluge Franz Halder Ion Antonescu C.G.E. Mannerheim Giovanni Messe, CSIR Italo Garibaldi, ARMIR Iosef Stalin Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko Fyodor Kuznetsov... Soviet Air Force, also known under the abbreviation VVS, transliterated from Russian: ВВС, Военно-воздушные силы (Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily), formed the official designation of the airforce of the Soviet Union. ... The Yakovlev Yak-1 was a World War II Soviet fighter aircraft and the first among the wars many successful Yakovlev fighters. ... The Yak-3 fighter The Yakovlev Yak-3 (Russian language: Ð¯Ðº-3) was a World War II Soviet fighter aircraft regarded as one of the best fighters of the war. ... The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Goudkov LaGG-3 (Лавочкин-Горбунов-Гудков ЛаГГ-3) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a refinement of the earlier LaGG-1, and was one of the most modern aircraft available to the Soviet Air Force at the time of Germanys attempted... The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 (ÐœÐ¸ÐºÐ¾ÑÐ½-Ð“ÑƒÑ€ÐµÐ²Ð¸Ñ‡ ÐœÐ¸Ð“-3) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a development of the MiG-1 in an attempt to curb some of that aircrafts handling problems. ... Eastern Front may refer to one of the following. ...

Eventually, the Allies developed advanced piston-engined fighters such as the P-47, P-51 and improved Spitfires that simply overwhelmed their German opposition. Despite having jets and even a rocket-powered interceptor (see Me-163), the Germans were swamped by superior numbers. The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, or Jug as it was known, was one of the main US Army Air Force (USAAF) fighters of World War II. The P-47 was a big, rugged, overbuilt aircraft that was effective in air combat but proved particularly useful as a fighter-bomber. ... The North American P-51 Mustang was a successful long range fighter aircraft which set new standards of excellence and performance when it entered service in the middle years of World War II and is still regarded as one of the very best piston-engined fighters ever made. ... The term Spitfire can refer to: a euphemistic translation of Cacafuego, a Spanish treasure galleon captured by Sir Francis Drake, a warplane, see Supermarine Spitfire a ship, see HMS Spitfire a movie from 1934, see Spitfire (1934) The US title of the British 1942 film The First of the Few. ... The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet was the only operational rocket fighter aircraft. ...

In the Pacific Theater, the experienced Japanese used their latest A6M Zero to clear the skies of all opposition. Caught off-guard, the Allied air forces (often flying obsolete aircraft, as the Japanese were not deemed as dangerous as the Germans) were driven back until the Japanese became overextended. Newer Allied fighter models were faster and better-armed than the Japanese fighters, and improved tactics (see Thach Weave) helped counter the nimble Zero. Japanese industry was not up to the task of creating fighter designs equal to the latest Western models, and they were largely driven from the skies by mid-1944. The Pacific Ocean theater was one of four major theaters of the Pacific War, between 1941 and 1945. ... The Mitsubishi A6M Zero (A for fighter, 6th model, M for Mitsubishi) was a lightweight, carrier-based fighter aircraft employed by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945. ... An example of the Thach Weave The Thach Weave was an aerial combat tactic developed by naval aviator John S. Thach of the United States Navy early during World War II. Thach had heard of the Japanese Mitsubishi Zeros extraordinary maneuverability and climb rate before he ever experienced it...

Piston-engine power increased considerably during the war. The Curtiss P-36 "Hawk" had a 900 HP Radial engine but was soon redesigned as the P-40 "Warhawk" with an 1100 HP in-line engine. By 1943, the latest P-40N had a 1300 HP Allison engine. At war's end, the Ta 152 German interceptor could achieve over 2000 HP with MW-50 (Methanol-Water injection) and American P-51s had a similar amount of power. The Curtiss P-36 Hawk, or as it was originally called, the Curtiss Hawk Model 75, was a US fighter aircraft of WW2. ... The radial engine is an internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders point outward from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel. ... The Curtiss P-40 was a US single-engine, single-seat, low-wing, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft which first flew in 1938, and was used in great numbers in World War II. It was a direct adaptation of the existing P-36 airframe to enable mass production... Allison, which may come from a medieval Norman nickname for Alice, meaning noble type, or from the Irish name Iseult, meaning fair lady. Look up Allison in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was a WW2 Luftwaffe high-altitude interceptor fighter. ... MW 50 was a 50-50 mixture of methanol and water (thus the name) that was sprayed into the supercharger of German aircraft engines primarily for its anti-detonant effect, allowing the use of increased boost pressures. ... Methanol, also known as methyl alcohol, carbinol, wood alcohol, wood naphtha or wood spirits, is a chemical compound with chemical formula CH3OH (often abbreviated MeOH). ... The North American P-51 Mustang was a successful long range fighter aircraft which set new standards of excellence and performance when it entered service in the middle years of World War II and is still regarded as one of the very best piston-engined fighters ever made. ...

The first jet-powered designs became operational in 1944, and clearly outperformed their piston-engined counterparts. New designs such as the Messerschmitt Me 262 and Gloster Meteor demonstrated the effectiveness of the new propulsion system. Many of these fighters could do over 400 mph (600 km/h) in level flight, and were fast enough in a dive that they started encountering the transonic buffeting experienced near the speed of sound, occasionally breaking up in flight due to the heavy load placed on an aircraft near the so-called "sound barrier". Dive brakes were developed late in World War II to minimise these problems and restore control to pilots. The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (German: Swallow) was the worlds first operational turbojet fighter aircraft. ... The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies first operational jet. ... Dive brakes are meant to slow down an aircraft when in a dive. ...

Armament became a priority once it became apparent that newer stressed-skin monoplane fighters could not be easily shot down with rifle-caliber machine guns. The Germans, with experience from the Spanish Civil War put 20mm cannon on their Bf-109 and Bf-110 models. The British soon followed suit, putting cannons in the wings of Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires. The Americans, lacking a native cannon design, instead chose to place multiple .50 caliber (12.7mm) MGs on their fighters. Armaments continued to increase, with the German ME-262 jet having four 30mm cannons in the nose. Cannon fired explosive shells, and could blast a hole in an enemy aircraft rather than relying on kinetic energy from a solid bullet striking a critical subsystem (fuel line, hydraulics, control cable, pilot, etc.). A debate existed over the merits of high rate-of-fire machine guns versus slower-firing, but more devastating, cannon. In mechanical engineering, stressed skin is a type of rigid construction, intermediate between monocoque and a rigid frame with a non-loaded covering. ... Not to be confused with the Spanish Civil War of 1820-1823. ... (Bf 109 was the official Reichsluftfahrtministerium designation, though some late-war aircraft actually carried the Me 109 designation stamped onto their aircraft type plates. ... The Messerschmitt Bf110 (later Me110) was a twin-engine heavy fighter in the service of the Luftwaffe during World War II. History Based around the concept of the long-range Zerstörer or Destroyer Fighter the Bf110 enjoyed some success in the Polish and French campaigns. ... The Hawker Hurricane is a fighter design from the 1930s which was used extensively by the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain. ... The still unpainted Spitfire protoype, K5054, shortly before its first flight The Supermarine Spitfire was a single-seat fighter used by the RAF and many Allied countries in World War II. Produced by Supermarine, the Spitfire was designed by R.J. Mitchell, who continued to refine it until his death... The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (Swallow) was the first operational jet powered aircraft. ...

As the war progressed, use of drop tanks became common. This made the heavy twin-engine fighter designs redundant, as single-engine fighters could now cover a similar distance. Extra fuel was carried in lightweight aluminum tanks below the aircraft, and the tanks were discarded when empty. Such innovations allowed American fighter cover to range over Germany and Japan by 1944. Drop tanks on a F-16 Fighting Falcon. ...

With the increasing need for Close air support on the battlefield, fighters were increasingly fitted with bomb racks and used as fighter-bombers. Some designs, such as the German FW-190, proved extraordinarily capable in this role -- though the designer (Kurt Tank) had designed it as a pure interceptor. Because an aircraft's lift is derived from the upper surface of the wing, the lower surface can easily be festooned with a variety of rockets, bombs, and other ordnance. This increases drag, and thus the performance of the fighter is lessened, but once the ordnance is delivered (or jettisoned), the aircraft is again a fully capable fighter aircraft. Command staff had the freedom to designate a particular air group as air superiority or ground-attack as need occasioned in many cases. An Apache attack helicopter provides close air support to United States Army soldiers patrolling the Tigris River southeast of Baghdad, Iraq during the Iraq War. ... Focke-Wulf Fw 190A in flight. ... Kurt Waldemar Tank, 1944. ...

Radar, invented shortly prior to World War II, was fitted to some fighters, such as the Messerschmitt Bf 110, F6F Hellcat and Northrop P-61 Black Widow to enable them to locate targets at night. The Germans developed several night-fighter types as they were under constant night bombardment by British Bomber Command. The British, in turn, refined their own designs to counter the Germans. Since the radar of the era was fairly primitive and difficult to use properly, larger 2-3 seat aircraft were commonly adapted to this role (with dedicated Radar Operator). The Messerschmitt Bf 110 (called an M.E. One-Ten by American pilots) was a twin-engine heavy fighter (ZerstÃ¶rer - German for Destroyer) in the service of the Luftwaffe during World War II. Later in the war it was changed to fighter-bomber (JagdBomber-Jabo) and night fighter operations... The Grumman F6F Hellcat was a fighter plane descended from the earlier F4F Wildcat, but was a completely new design sharing only a familial resemblance to the Wildcat. ... The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was an all-metal, twin-engine, twin-boom, monoplane night fighter and night intruder aircraft flown by the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It was the first American â€“ and only Allied â€“ purpose-built aircraft to serve as a radar-equipped... Bomber Command is an organizational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. ...

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (951x545, 49 KB) Focke-Wulf Fw 190-D9 (Langnase) Captured by US troops File links The following pages link to this file: Focke-Wulf Fw 190 ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (951x545, 49 KB) Focke-Wulf Fw 190-D9 (Langnase) Captured by US troops File links The following pages link to this file: Focke-Wulf Fw 190 ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The CAC Boomerang was a World War II fighter aircraft manufactured in Australia between 1942 and 1945. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Bloch MB-150 was a French low-wing, all metal monoplane fighter aircraft with retractable landing gear and closed cockpit developed by SocietÃ© des Avions Marcel Bloch as a contender in the 1934 French air ministry competition for a new fighter design. ... The Dewoitine D.520 was a French fighter aircraft that entered service in early 1940, shortly after the opening of World War II. Unlike the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406, which was at that time the ArmÃ©e de lAirs most numerous fighter, the Dewoitine D.520 came... The M.S.406 was a French ArmÃ©e de lAir fighter aircraft built by Morane-Saulnier starting in 1938. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Finland. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... German Airfield, France, 1941 propaganda photo of the Luftwaffe, Bf 109 fighters on the tarmac The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt in the early 1930s. ... The Messerschmitt Bf 110 (called an M.E. One-Ten by American pilots) was a twin-engine heavy fighter (ZerstÃ¶rer - German for Destroyer) in the service of the Luftwaffe during World War II. Later in the war it was changed to fighter-bomber (JagdBomber-Jabo) and night fighter operations... The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 WÃ¼rger (shrike), often called Butcher-bird, was a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft of Germanys Luftwaffe, and one of the best fighters of its generation. ... The Me 163 Komet, designed by Alexander Martin Lippisch, was the only operational rocket-powered fighter aircraft during the Second World War. ... The Messerschmitt Me 210 was a heavy fighter designed before the start of World War II to replace the Bf 110 in that role. ... The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (German: Swallow) was the worlds first operational turbojet fighter aircraft. ... The Heinkel He 100 was a pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel. ... The Heinkel He 111 was the primary Luftwaffe medium bomber during the early stages of World War II, and is perhaps the most famous symbol of the German side of the Battle of Britain. ... The Heinkel He 112 was a fighter aircraft designed by Walter and Siegfried GÃ¼nter at Heinkel. ... The Heinkel He 162 VolksjÃ¤ger (Peoples Fighter) was a single engined, jet powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in WWII. It was the fastest of the first generation of Axis and Allied jets. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy. ... The Macchi C.200 Saetta was a World War II fighter aircraft built by Aeronautica Macchi in Italy, and used in various forms throughout the Italian air forces. ... The Macchi C.202 Folgore was a World War II fighter aircraft built by the Macchi company, a development of their earlier C.200 Saetta mounting a more powerful German designed Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine. ... The Macchi C.205 Veltro (Greyhound) was an Italian World War II fighter aircraft built by the Aeronautica Macchi. ... The Fiat G.55 Centauro (Italian: Centaur) was a single-engine single-seat World War II fighter aircraft used by the Italian Air Force in 1943-1945. ... Fiat G.50 The Fiat G.50 Freccia (Italian: Arrow) was an Italian fighter aircraft of World War II. It was the first Italian low-wing monoplane fighter with enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear to go into production (without the enclosed cockpit though, as Italian pilots felt uncomfortable with... The Caproni-Reggiane Re. ... The Reggiane Re. ... The Reggiane Re. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Japan. ... The Kawanishi N1K1-J Shiden (ç´«é›» Violet Lightning) was a land-based version of the companys N1K Kyofu seaplane fighter aircraft. ... Nakajima Ki-27 The Nakajima Ki-27 (Allied codename Nate) was the main fighter aircraft used by the Japanese Imperial Army up until 1940, and the Armys first monoplane. ... The Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (éš¼, Peregrine Falcon) was a single-engined land-based fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II. The army designation was Type 1 Fighter (ä¸€å¼æˆ¦é—˜æ©Ÿ); the Allied codename was Oscar. ... The Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki (é¾é¦—ã€Demon) was a single-engined fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II, first flying in August 1940 and entering service in 1942. ... The Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (ç–¾é¢¨, Gale) was a single-seat fighter used by the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II. It was the last in Nakajimas line of classic fighters and considered one of the best-performing craft from any country. ... The Kawasaki [1]Ki-61 Hien (é£›ç‡•, flying swallow) was a Japanese World War II fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force. ... A Ki-100 at the RAF Museum at Hendon, London The Kawasaki Ki-100 was a fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. The Japanese Army designation was Type 5 Fighter (äº”å¼æˆ¦é—˜æ©Ÿ). Born as a result of a desperate choice, the Ki-100 was an example... Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero Model 52 The Mitsubishi A6M was a light-weight carrier-based fighter aircraft employed by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. ... The Mitsubishi J2M Raiden (é›·é›», Thunderbolt) was a single-engine, land-based fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. The Allied codename was Jack. // The J2M was designed by Jiro Horikoshi, creator of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. It was strictly a local-defense interceptor intended to... Image File history File links Flag_of_Poland. ... The PZL P.24 was a Polish fighter aircraft, designed in mid-1930s in the PZL factory in Warsaw. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Romania. ... The IAR 80 was a Romanian World War II low-wing, monoplane, all-metal construction fighter aircraft. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Sweden. ... The FFVS J 22 was a single-engine fighter aircraft developed for the Swedish Air Force during World War II. // At the onset of World War II, the Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet) was equipped with largely obsolete Gloster Gladiator (J 8) biplane fighters. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1155x768, 202 KB) Picture shows a Yak 3 Yakovlev Yak-9 Photographer: Kogo Date: 17. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1155x768, 202 KB) Picture shows a Yak 3 Yakovlev Yak-9 Photographer: Kogo Date: 17. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... The Yakovlev Yak-1 was a World War II Soviet fighter aircraft and the first among the wars many successful Yakovlev fighters. ... The Yak-3 fighter The Yakovlev Yak-3 (Russian language: Ð¯Ðº-3) was a World War II Soviet fighter aircraft regarded as one of the best fighters of the war. ... Yak-9 Yak-9D The Yakovlev Yak-9 was a single-engine fighter aircraft used by the Soviet Union in World War II. Like the Yak-3, it was a development of the earlier Yak-1. ... The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Goudkov LaGG-3 (Лавочкин-Горбунов-Гудков ЛаГГ-3) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a refinement of the earlier LaGG-1, and was one of the most modern aircraft available to the Soviet Air Force at the time of Germanys attempted... The Lavochkin La-5 (Ð›Ð°Ð²Ð¾Ñ‡ÐºÐ¸Ð½ Ð›Ð°-5) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a development and refinement of the LaGG-3 and was one of the Soviet Air Forces most capable types of warplane. ... Lavochkin La-7 This article is about the WW2 Soviet airplane. ... The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 (ÐœÐ¸ÐºÐ¾ÑÐ½-Ð“ÑƒÑ€ÐµÐ²Ð¸Ñ‡ ÐœÐ¸Ð“-3) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a development of the MiG-1 in an attempt to curb some of that aircrafts handling problems. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... The Supermarine Spitfire was a British single-seat fighter, which was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries during the Second World War, and into the 1950s. ... The Hawker Hurricane was a British single-seat fighter aircraft designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. ... The Typhoon was a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft starting in 1941. ... Hawker Tempest II, RAF Museum, Hendon The Hawker Tempest was a Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter aircraft of World War II, an improved derivative of the Hawker Typhoon, and one of the most powerful fighters used in the war. ... The de Havilland Mosquito[1] was a British combat aircraft that excelled in a number of roles during the Second World War. ... The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies first operational jet. ... A pair of 264 Squadron Defiants. ... The Sea Fury was a British fighter aircraft developed for the Fleet Air Arm by Hawker during the Second World War. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... North American Aviation P-51A Mustang in a test flight from NAAs Inglewood, California facility. ... North American Aviation P-51A Mustang in a test flight from NAAs Inglewood, California facility. ... The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading producer of military and civilian aircraft of the 20th century. ... F4F-3 Wildcat of Lt. ... The VE-7 was the first plane to make a US carrier takeoff. ... The Chance Vought F4U Corsair was an American fighter aircraft that saw service in World War II and the Korean War (and in isolated local conflicts). ... The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading producer of military and civilian aircraft of the 20th century. ... The Grumman F6F Hellcat was a fighter plane descended from the earlier F4F Wildcat, but was a completely new design sharing only a familial resemblance to the Wildcat. ... The Curtiss-Wright Corporation was once a leading aircraft manufacturer of the United States, but has since become a component manufacturer, specializing in actuators, controls, valves, and metal treatment. ... The Curtiss P-36 Hawk, also know as Curtiss Hawk Model 75, was a U.S.-built fighter aircraft of the 1930s. ... The Lockheed SR-71 was remarkably advanced for its time and remains unsurpassed in many areas of performance. ... P-38 redirects here. ... Bell Aircraft Corporation assembly factory in Buffalo, New York, during the 1940s. ... The Bell P-39 Airacobra was one of the principal American fighter aircraft in service at the start of World War II. Although its mid-engine placement was innovative, the P-39 design was handicapped by the lack of an efficient turbo-supercharger, limiting it to low-altitude work, although... The Curtiss-Wright Corporation was once a leading aircraft manufacturer of the United States, but has since become a component manufacturer, specializing in actuators, controls, valves, and metal treatment. ... The Curtiss P-40 was an American fighter aircraft which first flew in 1938 and played a vital role in the crucial middle stages of World War II. Developed from the pre-war radial-engined P-36 Hawk, the P-40 became known as the Tomahawk, the Kittyhawk, and finally... The Republic Aviation Company was an American aircraft manufacturer. ... The American Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, also known as Jug, was the largest single-engined fighter of its day. ... North American Aviation was a major US aircraft manufacturer. ... The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range single-seat fighter aircraft that entered service with Allied air forces in the middle years of World War II. The P-51 became one of the conflicts most successful and recognizable aircraft. ... Bell Aircraft Corporation assembly factory in Buffalo, New York, during the 1940s. ... The Bell P-63 Kingcobra was an American fighter developed in World War II from the P-39 Airacobra in an attempt to correct that aircrafts deficiencies. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia. ... Motto Brotherhood and Unity Anthem Hey, Slavs Capital Belgrade Language(s) Serbo-Croatian (spoken throughout the territory), Slovenian, Macedonian, Albanian, Hungarian (all official), and languages of other nationalities. ... The RogoÅ¾arski IK-3, a low wing monoplane single seat interceptor fighter with retractable landing gear, was a product of the design team of Ljubomir IliÄ‡ and Kosta SivÄev as a follow on to their IK-1/IK-2 fighter. ...

Jet-powered fighters

First-generation jet fighters (1944-1953)

The first generation represents the first attempts at using turbojets for propulsion, providing greatly increased speed (the efficiency of piston-driven propellers drops off considerably at transsonic speeds). Many of these early jets resembled their piston-driven counterparts in several ways. Many were straight-winged aircraft armed primarily with heavy machine-guns; radar was not yet in common usage except on specialized night fighters. A night fighter is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night, or in other times of bad visibility. ...

The first jets were developed during World War II and saw combat in its last year. Messerschmitt developed the first operational jet fighter, the Me 262. It was considerably faster than piston-driven aircraft, and in the hands of a competent pilot, was quite difficult for Allied pilots to defeat. The design was never deployed in numbers sufficient to stop the Allied air campaign, and a combination of fuel shortages and technical difficulties with the engines kept the number of sorties low. Nevertheless the plane indicated the obsolescence of piston-driven aircraft. Spurred by reports of the German jets, Britain's Gloster Meteor entered production soon after and the two entered service around the same time in 1944. Meteors were commonly used to intercept the V-1 "buzz bomb", as they were faster than piston-engined contemporaries. By the end of the war almost all work on piston powered fighters had ended. Mixed-propulsion designs such as the Ryan FR Fireball saw brief use, but by the end of the 1940s virtually all new combat aircraft were jet-powered. The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (German: Swallow) was the worlds first operational turbojet fighter aircraft. ... The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies first operational jet. ... The Vergeltungswaffe 1 Fi 103 / FZG-76 (V-1), known as the Flying bomb, Buzz bomb or Doodlebug, was the first modern guided missile used in wartime and the first cruise missile. ... The Ryan FR Fireball was a composite propeller and jet powered aircraft designed for the United States Navy during World War II. They entered service before the end of the war but did not see combat. ...

Despite the advantages, the early jet fighters were far from perfect, particularly in the opening years of the generation. Their operational lifespans could be measured primarily in hours; the engines themselves were fragile and bulky, and power could be adjusted only slowly. Many squadrons of piston-engined fighters were retained until the early-to-mid 1950s, even in the US and Soviet Air Forces (though the types retained were the best of the WW2 designs -- such as the P-51). Innovations such as swept wings, ejector seats, and all-moving tailplanes were introduced in this period. The swept wing of an airliner: British Midland Airbus A320-200 A swept-wing is a wing planform used on high-speed aircraft that spend a considerable portion of their flight time in the transonic. ... US Air Force F-15 Eagle ejection seat test using a mannequin. ... Tailplane or horizontal stabilizer of a Boeing 737 A tailplane, also known as horizontal stabilizer, is a small lifting surface located behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplanes. ...

The Americans were one of the first to begin using jet fighters post-war. The P-80 (soon re-designated F-80) was less elegant than the swept-wing Messerschimitt, but had a cruise speed (410 mph / 660 km) as high as the combat maximum of many piston-engined fighters. The British designed several new jets, including the iconic de Havilland Vampire which was sold to the air forces of many nations. Ironically, the English transferred Rolls-Royce jet engine technology to the Soviets, who soon put it to use in their advanced MiG-15 fighters. These proved quite a shock to the American F-80 pilots who encountered them over Korea. Where the American jets were armed with a "traditional" load of six .50 cal (12.7mm) heavy machine-guns, the MiGs used two 23mm cannons and a single 37mm cannon (good against bombers). A few hits from the MiG could knock an American fighter out of the sky. The de Havilland DH.100 Vampire was the second jet-engined aircraft commissioned by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War (the first being the Gloster Meteor), although it did not see combat in that conflict. ... Rolls-Royce Limited was an British car and, later, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Henry Royce and Charles Stewart Rolls on 15 March 1906 and was the result of a partnership formed in 1904. ... The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (NATO reporting name Fagot) was a jet fighter developed for the USSR. History Design began under the bureau designation I-310, which first flew in 1947. ...

The response to this was to rush F-86 squadrons to battle against the MiGs. While carrying the same armament as the F-80, the F-86 was a true swept-wing transonic fighter, as was the MiG-15. The two aircraft had different strengths, but were similar enough that only the superior skills of the veteran United States Air Force pilots allowed them to prevail. Transonic is an aeronautics term referring to a range of velocities just below and above the speed of sound. ... â€œThe U.S. Air Forceâ€ redirects here. ...

The world's navies also went for jets during this period, despite the need for catapult-launching of the new aircraft. The F9F Panther was adopted by the US Navy as their primary jet fighter in the Korean War period. The Vampire was commonly used in this role for the Royal Navy. The American Grumman F9F Panther was the manufacturers first jet fighter and the U.S. Navys second. ...

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck, (affectionately known as the Clunk), was a Canadian jet fighter serving during the Cold War. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (German: Swallow) was the worlds first operational turbojet fighter aircraft. ... The Heinkel He 162 VolksjÃ¤ger (Peoples Fighter) was a single engined, jet powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in WWII. It was the fastest of the first generation of Axis and Allied jets. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Dassault Ouragan was an aircraft designed during World War II. Although the French, as citizens of an occupied country, were not able to contribute significantly to the great strides made in aircraft design made during World War II, after the war Marcel Dassault saw no reason why the French could... The Dassault MystÃ¨re was a French fighter aircraft. ... Dassault MD.454 MystÃ¨re IV is a 1950s French fighter-bomber. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China. ... J-5 of the PLAAF The J-5 or F-5, not to be confused with the American-made F-5 Freedom Fighter, is a Chinese-built single-seat jet interceptor and fighter aircraft derived from the Russian MiG-17. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Sweden. ... SAAB J 29 Tunnan (The Barrel) was a Swedish fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Saab 1950 - 1956. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... Download high resolution version (1280x565, 290 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1280x565, 290 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... MiG-9 in Monino Same MiG-9 in Zhukovski The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9 (Russian: ) was a first-generation Soviet turbojet fighter and attack aircraft developed in the years immediately after World War II. // Development The MiG-9 was developed from the I-300 prototype which first flew on April... The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (Russian: ) (NATO reporting name Fagot) was a jet fighter developed for the USSR by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. ... MiG-17 at the Central Texas Airshow, USA, May 2003. ... The Lavochkin La-15 (NATO reporting name Fantail) was an early Soviet jet fighter and a contemporary of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15. ... The Yakovlev Yak-15 (originally given the designation Type-2 by US intelligence, and later the NATO reporting name Feather) was an early Soviet jet fighter, and the lightest operational jet fighter ever built. ... The Yakovlev Yak-17 (Russian: Ð¯Ðº-17 , originally known to US intelligence as the Type-16 and later by the NATO reporting name Feather) was an early Soviet jet fighter, developed from the Yak-15. ... The Yakovlev Yak-23 (NATO designation Flora) was a jet fighter developed in the USSR. Yak-23 in Muzeum Orla Bialego in Poland History The Yak-23 was developed as a simple lightweight jet fighter, on Yakovlevs own initiative. ... The Yakovlev Yak-25 (NATO designation Flashlight-A / Mandrake) was a swept wing, turbojet-powered interceptor aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft used by the Soviet Union. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 541 pixelsFull resolution (900 Ã— 609 pixel, file size: 63 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Pakistan Air Force F-86 Sabre aircraft. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 541 pixelsFull resolution (900 Ã— 609 pixel, file size: 63 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Pakistan Air Force F-86 Sabre aircraft. ... Pakistan Air Force (Urdu: Ù¾Ø§Ú© ÙØ¶Ø§Ø¦ÛŒÛ, Pak Fazaya) is the Aviation branch of the Pakistan armed forces and is responsible for defending Pakistani air-space from intrusions. ... The de Havilland DH.100 Vampire was the second jet-engined aircraft commissioned by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War (the first being the Gloster Meteor), although it did not see combat in that conflict. ... The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies first operational jet. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Lockheed SR-71 was remarkably advanced for its time and remains unsurpassed in many areas of performance. ... The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the first operational jet fighter used by the United States Army Air Forces and, as the F-80, saw extensive combat in Korea with the United States Air Force. ... The Republic Aviation Company was an American aircraft manufacturer. ... The Republic Aviation F-84 Thunderjet was an American-built turbojet fighter-bomber aircraft. ... North American Aviation was a major US aircraft manufacturer. ... The North American F-86 Sabre (sometimes called the Sabrejet) was a transonic combat aircraft developed for the US Air Force. ... The Northrop Corporation was a leading aircraft manufacturer of the United States. ... The Northrop F-89 Scorpion was an early American jet-powered all-weather interceptor. ... The Lockheed SR-71 was remarkably advanced for its time and remains unsurpassed in many areas of performance. ... The Lockheed F-94 was the United States Air Forces first operational jet-powered all-weather interceptor aircraft. ... North American Aviation was a major US aircraft manufacturer. ... North American FJ-4 Fury. ... The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer, based near St. ... F2H-2 Banshee The McDonnell F2H Banshee was a military carrier-based jet fighter aircraft, used by the US Navy from 1951 to 1959 and by the Royal Canadian Navy from 1955 until 1962. ... The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer, based near St. ... The McDonnell F3H Demon was a US Navy carrier-based jet fighter aircraft. ... The Douglas Aircraft Company was founded by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. ... The Douglas F4D Skyray (later redesignated F-6 Skyray) was a carrier-based fighter built by the Douglas Aircraft Company. ... The VE-7 was the first plane to make a US carrier takeoff. ... The Chance Vought F7U Cutlass (Vought V-346A Cutlass) was a U.S. Navy carrier based jet fighter and fighter-bomber of the early Cold War. ... The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading producer of military and civilian aircraft of the 20th century. ... The American Grumman F9F Panther was the manufacturers first jet fighter and the U.S. Navys second. ...

Second generation (1953-1960)

The second generation describes the integration of many new technologies to greatly improve the fighting capability of the jet fighter. The introduction of guided missiles such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-7 Sparrow moved combat to beyond visual range (though it often devolved into dogfights in visual range), necessitating the standardization of radar to acquire targets. Designers experimented with a variety of aeronautical innovations, such as the swept wing, delta wing, variable-geometry wings, and area ruled fuselages. With the aid of swept wing, these were the first production aircraft to break the sound barrier. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1500x1000, 123 KB) USAF F-100; USAF public domain photo F-100A-1-NA 52-5761, currently on display at the New England Air Museum File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1500x1000, 123 KB) USAF F-100; USAF public domain photo F-100A-1-NA 52-5761, currently on display at the New England Air Museum File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other... F-100A Super Sabre The North American F-100 Super Sabre was a jet fighter aircraft that served with the USAF from 1954 to 1971 and with the ANG until 1979. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2840x1880, 1220 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Fighter aircraft Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2840x1880, 1220 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Fighter aircraft Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... The Republic F-105 Thunderchief, commonly known as the Thud by its crews, was a single-seat supersonic fighter-bomber used by the United States Air Force. ... Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (NATO reporting name Fishbed) is a fighter aircraft, originally built by the Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. ... The SAAB A32 Lansen (Swedish:lance) was a two-seater attack aircraft produced by SAAB from 1955 to 1960 for Flygvapnet, the Swedish air force. ... The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heat-seeking, short-range, air-to-air missile carried by fighter aircraft and recently, certain gunship helicopters. ... A RIM-7 Sea Sparrow being launched from the USS Essex (LHD-2). ... This article is about the aerial combat maneuver. ... Six F-16 Fighting Falcons with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team fly in delta formation in front of the Empire State Building. ... The swept wing of an airliner: British Midland Airbus A320-200 A swept-wing is a wing planform used on high-speed aircraft that spend a considerable portion of their flight time in the transonic. ... The delta-wing is a wing planform in the form of a triangle. ... A swing-wing is a type of pivoted wing planform that takes advantage of the aerodynamics of a swept wing at high speeds while avoiding the drawbacks of such a design at lower speeds. ... Junkers patent drawing from March 1944. ...

The primary specializations of this era were the fighter-bomber (such as the F-105 and the Sukhoi Su-7), and the interceptor (English Electric Lightning and F-104 Starfighter). The interceptor was an outgrowth of the vision that guided missiles would completely replace guns and combat would take place at beyond visual range. As a result, interceptors were designed with a large missile payload and a powerful radar, sacrificing agility in favor of speed and rate of climb. A ground attack aircraft is an aircraft that is designed to operate very close to the ground, supporting infantry and tanks directly in battle. ... The Republic F-105 Thunderchief was a single-seat, supersonic fighter-bomber used by the United States Air Force. ... Su-7s of the Polish Air Force. ... The MiG-25 is a Russian interceptor that was the mainstay of the Soviet air defence. ... The English Electric Lightning (later the BAC Lightning) was a supersonic fighter aircraft of the Cold War era, particularly remembered for its great speed and natural metal exterior. ... The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was a single-engined, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1958 until 1967. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ...

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Dassault Ã‰tendard IV was a French carrier-borne strike fighter in service with the French Navy. ... The Dassault Super MystÃ¨re French fighter-bomber was the first Western European supersonic aircraft to enter mass production. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_India. ... HAL HF-24 Marut The Hindustan Aeronautics HF-24 Marut (Sanskrit: storm deity) was an Indian fighter-bomber aircraft of the 1960s. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China. ... An F-6 of the Pakistan Air Force The Shenyang J-6 (designated F-6 for export versions) was the Chinese-built version of the Soviet MiG-19 fighter aircraft. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Sweden. ... The SAAB A32 Lansen (Swedish:lance) was a two-seater attack aircraft produced by SAAB from 1955 to 1960 for Flygvapnet, the Swedish air force. ... The Saab 35 Draken (Draken is Swedish for The kite, but can also mean The Dragon) or Saab 35 is a Swedish fighter aircraft manufactured by Saab between 1955 and 1974. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (Russian: ) (NATO reporting name Farmer) is a Soviet third-generation, single-seat, jet-engined fighter aircraft. ... The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (Russian: ) (NATO reporting name Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed and built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. ... Su-7s of the Polish Air Force. ... This article is about the supersonic Su-9 Fishpot. For the earlier subsonic interceptor, see Sukhoi Su-9 (1946). ... Sukhoi Su-11 The Sukhoi Su-11 (NATO reporting name Fishpot-C) was an interceptor aircraft used by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... The English Electric Lightning (later the BAC Lightning) was a supersonic fighter aircraft of the Cold War era, particularly remembered for its great speed and natural metal exterior. ... The de Havilland DH.112 Venom was a post- war jet single-seat fighter-bomber of the Royal Air Force. ... The correct title of this article is de Havilland Sea Vixen. ... The Gloster Javelin was an interceptor aircraft that served with Britains Royal Air Force in the late 1950s and most of the 1960s. ... The Hawker Hunter was a British jet fighter aircraft of the 1950s and 1960s. ... This refers to the aircraft, for other uses see Scimitar (disambiguation) The Supermarine Scimitar was a fighter aircraft in the British Fleet Air Arm. ... The Supermarine Swift was a single-seat fighter-jet of the Royal Air Force (RAF), built by Supermarine. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The VE-7 was the first plane to make a US carrier takeoff. ... The F-8 Crusader (originally F8U) was a single-engine aircraft carrier-based fighter aircraft built by Chance-Vought of Dallas, Texas, USA. It replaced the Vought F-7 Cutlass. ... The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading producer of military and civilian aircraft of the 20th century. ... The Grumman F9F Cougar (redesignated the F-9 Cougar in the 1962 joint service aircraft designation system) was a aircraft carrier-based fighter aircraft for the United States Navy. ... The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading producer of military and civilian aircraft of the 20th century. ... The Grumman F-11 Tiger was a single-seat carrier-based United States Navy fighter aircraft in operation during the 1950s and 1960s. ... North American Aviation was a major US aircraft manufacturer. ... F-100A Super Sabre The North American F-100 Super Sabre was a jet fighter aircraft that served with the USAF from 1954 to 1971 and with the ANG until 1979. ... The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer, based near St. ... The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo was a supersonic military aircraft flown by the USAF and the RCAF. Initially designed as a long-range bomber escort (known as a penetration fighter) for the Strategic Air Command, the Voodoo served in a variety of other roles, including the fighter bomber, all-weather... The Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, universally known as Convair, was the result of a 1943 merger between Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft, resulting in a leading aircraft manufacturer of the United States. ... The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger fighter aircraft was part of the backbone of the United States air defenses in the late 1950s. ... The Lockheed SR-71 was remarkably advanced for its time and remains unsurpassed in many areas of performance. ... The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was a single-engined, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft that served with the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1958 until 1967. ... The Republic Aviation Company was an American aircraft manufacturer. ... The Republic F-105 Thunderchief, commonly known as the Thud by its crews, was a single-seat supersonic fighter-bomber used by the United States Air Force. ... The Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, universally known as Convair, was the result of a 1943 merger between Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft, resulting in a leading aircraft manufacturer of the United States. ... The Convair F-106A Delta Dart was the primary all-weather interceptor aircraft for the United States Air Force from the 1960s through the 1980s. ...

Third generation (1960-1970)

The third generation is marked by maturity in the innovations introduced in the first generation. As this aeronautical development approached maturity, growth in combat capability grew via the introduction of improved missiles, radar, and other avionics. Most significantly, as a result of combat experience with guided missiles, designers conceded that combat could and would degenerate into close dogfights. New automatic-fire weapons, primarily gatling cannon, allowed a single multi-barrel weapon to be carried -- with a greater weight-of-fire and accuracy. Third generation designs also brought a new emphasis on maneuverability for many aircraft, though this was never a strength of the delta-winged fighters. Bold textlink title File links The following pages link to this file: F-4 Phantom II General Electric J79 ... Bold textlink title File links The following pages link to this file: F-4 Phantom II General Electric J79 ... Image File history File links MiG-25_fig2agrau_USAF.jpg Drawing MiG-25 Source: http://www. ... Image File history File links MiG-25_fig2agrau_USAF.jpg Drawing MiG-25 Source: http://www. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 464 pixelsFull resolution (3000 Ã— 1739 pixel, file size: 423 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) (Uploaded using CommonsHelper or PushForCommons) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 464 pixelsFull resolution (3000 Ã— 1739 pixel, file size: 423 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) (Uploaded using CommonsHelper or PushForCommons) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the Air Force branch of the Australian Defence Force. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... An 1865 Gatling gun. ...

These innovations, while greatly improving the capabilities of fighters (the F-4 could carry a payload greater than the B-24 Liberator, a World War II heavy bomber), also came at a considerable increase at cost. Whereas militaries had previously specialized fighters for specific roles, such as night fighter, heavy fighter and strike fighter, in order to counter the growing cost of fighters, militaries began to consolidate missions. The McDonnell F-4 Phantom II was designed as a pure interceptor for the United States Navy, but became a highly successful multi-role aircraft for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps as well as many other nations. It is the only combat aircraft to be simultaneously flown by all three American service branches. The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber that was produced in greater numbers than any other American combat aircraft during World War II and still holds the record as the most produced allied aircraft. ... â€œF-4â€ redirects here. ... USN redirects here. ... â€œThe U.S. Air Forceâ€ redirects here. ... The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the United States military responsible for providing power projection from the sea,[1] utilizing the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. ...

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Dassault Mirage III is a supersonic fighter aircraft designed in France by Dassault Aviation during the 1950s, and manufactured both in France and a number of other countries. ... The Dassault Mirage 5 is a supersonic fighter aircraft designed in France by Dassault Aviation during the 1960s, and manufactured both in France and a number of other countries. ... The Dassault Mirage F1 is a single-seat air-superiority fighter and attack aircraft built by Dassault Aviation of France. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Iran. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Israel. ... The Israel Aircraft Industries Nesher (Vulture in Hebrew) is the Israeli name of the Dassault Mirage 5 multi-role fighter aircraft. ... The Israel Aircraft Industries Kfir (Hebrew: ×›×¤×™×¨, Lion Cub) is an Israeli-built all-weather, multi-role combat aircraft based on a modified Dassault Mirage 5 airframe, with Israeli avionics and an Israeli-made version of the General Electric J79 turbojet engine. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China. ... The Chengdu Jian-7 (export versions F-7) is a Peoples Republic of China-built fighter jet derived from the Russian Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21. ... A J-8IIM on the airstrip. ... The Xian JH-7 (Jian Hong-7; NATO reporting name Flounder[1]), also known as the FBC-1 (Fighter/Bomber China-1)Flying Leopard, is a two-seater (tandem), twin-engine fighter-bomber in service with the Peoples Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF), and possibly the Peoples... Image File history File links Flag_of_South_Africa. ... The Atlas Cheetah is a fighter aircraft of the South African Air Force. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Sweden. ... See also the Saab 9-3 Viggen automobile The Saab 37 Viggen (Thunderbolt) is a Swedish fighter aircraft manufactured between 1970 and 1990 to replace the Saab J 35 Draken. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (Russian: ) (NATO reporting name Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed and built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. ... The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (Russian: ; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a swing-wing fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau in the Soviet Union. ... The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (Russian: ) (NATO reporting name Foxbat) is a very high-speed interceptor and reconnaissance/bomber aircraft designed by the Soviet Unions Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau. ... Su-15 The Sukhoi Su-15 (NATO reporting name Flagon) was a twin-engined interceptor aircraft developed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s to replace the Sukhoi Su-11. ... Polish decomissioned Su-20 Front view of Su-20 Polish Su-22 Two aircraft share the designation Su-17 The Sukhoi Su-17 (NATO reporting name Fitter) was a Soviet attack aircraft developed from the Su-7 fighter-bomber. ... The Tupolev Tu-28 (NATO reporting name Fiddler) was developed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s as a long-range interceptor aircraft. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... DC-10, retired from American Airlines fleet at gate McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer, producing a number of famous commercial and military aircraft. ... â€œF-4â€ redirects here. ... The F-5A/B Freedom Fighter and F-5E/F Tiger II are part of a family of widely used light supersonic fighter aircraft, designed and built by Northrop in the United States, beginning in 1960s. ...

Fourth generation (1970-1990)

In reaction to the continually rising cost of fighters and the demonstrated success of the F-4 Phantom II, multirole fighters became popular during this period, and even aircraft designed for a specific role (as the F-4 had) acquired multi-role capability. Fighters such as the MiG-23 and Panavia Tornado have versions specially suited for various roles, while true multirole warplanes include the F/A-18 Hornet and Dassault Mirage 2000. This was facilitated by avionics which could switch seamlessly between air and ground modes. As development costs increased, economics further pushed the development for multirole aircraft. A fourth generation F-16. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1492x867, 252 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Fighter aircraft F-14 Tomcat VFA-31 Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1492x867, 252 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Fighter aircraft F-14 Tomcat VFA-31 Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1728x1152, 209 KB)A Mirage 2000 from the Hellenic Air Force, 114th Composite Group, 331st Tactical Fighter Wing, Greece. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1728x1152, 209 KB)A Mirage 2000 from the Hellenic Air Force, 114th Composite Group, 331st Tactical Fighter Wing, Greece. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2860x1880, 3048 KB)A US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon flies with a German MiG 29, NATO code-named Fulcrum, off the coast of Sardinia during a joint training exercise. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2860x1880, 3048 KB)A US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon flies with a German MiG 29, NATO code-named Fulcrum, off the coast of Sardinia during a joint training exercise. ... â€œF-4â€ redirects here. ... Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (Flogger). ... The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine fighters, which was jointly developed by the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. ... The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet is a modern all-weather carrier-capable strike fighter jet, designed to attack both ground and aerial targets. ... The Mirage 2000 is a French-built multirole fighter jet manufactured by Dassault Aviation. ...

Unlike interceptors of the previous era, most modern air-superiority fighters have been designed to be agile dog-fighters. Fly-by-wire controls and relaxed stability are common among modern fighters. Aircraft here make up most of the "fourth generations" of fighter jets. A flight control system consists of the flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkage, and necessary operating mechanisms to control aircraft in flight The basic fundamentals of aircraft controls has been explained in aeronautics. ... In aviation, relaxed stability refers to the tendency of an aircraft to change its attitude and angle of bank on its own accord. ...

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Mirage 2000 is a French-built multirole fighter jet manufactured by Dassault Aviation. ... The Dassault Mirage 2000N is a variant of the Mirage 2000 designed for nuclear strike. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China. ... The Shenyang J-11 is an advanced fighter in the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Joint Fighter-17 (JF-17) Thunder, also known as the Fighter China-1 (FC-1) Fierce Dragon [1] in China, is a single-seat multirole fighter aircraft developed by China and Pakistan. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Republic_of_China. ... For the Chinese civilization, see China. ... The Republic of China (Taiwan) Air Forces AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo (ç¶“åœ‹) is a light fighter aircraft named after the late ROC President Chiang Ching-kuo. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... The Mikoyan MiG-29 (Russian: ) is a 4th generation jet fighter aircraft designed for the air superiority role in the Soviet Union. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Su-27 Flanker redirects here. ... The Sukhoi Su-33 (NATO reporting name Flanker-D) is a naval military aircraft produced by Russian firm Sukhoi in 1982 for aircraft carriers. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy. ... The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine fighters, which was jointly developed by the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading producer of military and civilian aircraft of the 20th century. ... The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable geometry wing aircraft. ... DC-10, retired from American Airlines fleet at gate McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer, producing a number of famous commercial and military aircraft. ... F-15 redirects here. ... General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE: GD) is a defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2006 it is the sixth largest defense contractor in the world[2]. The company has changed markedly in the post-Cold War era of defense consolidation. ... Lockheed/BAE/Northrop F-35 Lockheed Trident missile C-130 Hercules; in production since the 1950s, now as the C-130J Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is an aerospace manufacturer formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. ... The F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American multirole jet fighter aircraft developed by General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin for the United States Air Force. ... DC-10, retired from American Airlines fleet at gate McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer, producing a number of famous commercial and military aircraft. ... The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet is a modern all-weather carrier-capable strike fighter jet, designed to attack both ground and aerial targets. ... The Northrop Corporation was a leading aircraft manufacturer of the United States. ... The Northrop F-20 Tigershark (initially F-5G) was a privately financed fighter aircraft, designed and built by Northrop in the USA, starting in 1975 and offered for sale starting in the 1980s and formally ending in the early 1990s. ...

Generation 4.5 (1990-2000)

This half-generation has been coined to describe an interim period of aircraft design marked by a relative stagnation of aerodynamic technologies compared to third and fourth generation advances, but with tremendous achievements made in the field of avionics and other flight electronics. This was largely due to advances made in microchip and semiconductor technology in the 1980s and 1990s. This combination led designers to produce "upgraded" fourth-generation designs, with airframes either based on existing airframes or on similar design theory as previous iterations, but implementing the avionics and radar advances developed in the interim as well as some of the lessons learned in fourth-generation stealth designs, which would later be fully envisaged in fifth-generation fighters. A prime example of this generation is the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, based on the 1970s F/A-18 Hornet design. While the external profile remains largely the same, the Super Hornet features improved avionics in the form of a glass cockpit (which is still 90% common to the original), a solid-state AESA fixed-array radar, new engines, the structural use of composite materials to reduce weight, and a slightly modified shape to minimize its radar signature. Another is the F-15E Strike Eagle, a ground-attack variant of the Cold War-era F-15 Eagle fighter with an strengthened airframe and upgraded engines, glass cockpit displays, and the very latest terrain-following navigation and targeting systems. Of the 4.5 generation designs, only the Super Hornet, Strike Eagle, and the Rafale have seen combat action. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (880x702, 311 KB) Typhoon T1 ZJ808 of No. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (880x702, 311 KB) Typhoon T1 ZJ808 of No. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 574 pixelsFull resolution (1025 Ã— 736 pixel, file size: 40 KiB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Taken during aero-India bangalore I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 574 pixelsFull resolution (1025 Ã— 736 pixel, file size: 40 KiB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Taken during aero-India bangalore I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 534 pixelsFull resolution (977 Ã— 652 pixel, file size: 74 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 534 pixelsFull resolution (977 Ã— 652 pixel, file size: 74 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is a carrier-based fighter/attack aircraft that entered service in 1999 with the United States Navy. ... The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet is a modern all-weather carrier-capable strike fighter jet, designed to attack both ground and aerial targets. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The F-15E Strike Eagle is a modern United States all-weather strike fighter, designed for long-range interdiction of enemy ground targets deep behind enemy lines. ... F-15 redirects here. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The logo of the Dassault Rafale program. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_India. ... The HAL Tejas (Sanskrit: : Radiant) is a lightweight multirole fighter aircraft being developed by India. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Japan. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2 Fighter The F-2 is a Japanese-American fighter aircraft manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Lockheed Martin for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, with a 60/40 split in manufacturing between Japan and the USA. General Electric (Engine), Kawasaki, Honeywell, Raytheon... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China. ... The Chengdu J-10 (æ¼å, JiÄn 10) is a multirole fighter aircraft designed and produced by the Peoples Republic of Chinas Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAC) for the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). ... The Shenyang J-11 is an advanced fighter in the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Russia. ... ... ... The Sukhoi Su-30 (NATO reporting name Flanker-C) is an agile military aircraft developed by Russias Sukhoi Aviation Corporation and introduced into operational service in 1996. ... Su-35 cockpit The Sukhoi Su-35 (NATO designation: Flanker-E) is an advanced fighter aircraft flown by the Russian Air Force. ... The Sukhoi Su-37 (NATO designation: Flanker-F) is a Russian multi-role jet fighter aircraft. ... The Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name Fullback) is an advanced Russian 2-seat fighter-bomber and strike aircraft. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Russia. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_India. ... Sukhoi Su-30 MKI (NATO reporting name Flanker-H)[1] is a variant of the Sukhoi Su-30, jointly-developed by Russias Sukhoi Corporation and Indias Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the Indian Air Force. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Russia. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China. ... The Sukhoi Su-30MKK[1] is a modification of the Su-27 SK manufactured since 1999 by KNAAPO, JSC. It is considered an upgraded version of Sukhoi Su-30. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Sweden. ... For the manufacturer of Saab cars, see Saab Automobile. ... The Saab JAS 39 Gripen (Griffin or Gryphon) is a fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace company Saab. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Spain. ... This article is about a fighter aircraft. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661) is a major aerospace and defense corporation, originally founded by William Edward Boeing. ... The F-15E Strike Eagle is a modern United States all-weather strike fighter, designed for long-range interdiction of enemy ground targets deep behind enemy lines. ... General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE: GD) is a defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2006 it is the sixth largest defense contractor in the world[2]. The company has changed markedly in the post-Cold War era of defense consolidation. ... Lockheed/BAE/Northrop F-35 Lockheed Trident missile C-130 Hercules; in production since the 1950s, now as the C-130J Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is an aerospace manufacturer formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. ... The F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American multirole jet fighter aircraft developed by General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin for the United States Air Force. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661) is a major aerospace and defense corporation, originally founded by William Edward Boeing. ... The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is a carrier-based fighter/attack aircraft that entered service in 1999 with the United States Navy. ...

Fifth generation (2000-Present)

The current cutting edge of fighter design combines previous emphasis on versatility with new developments such as thrust vectoring, short takeoff/landing, composite materials, supercruise, stealth technology, advanced radar and sensors, and integrated avionics designed to reduce the pilot's workload while vastly improving situational awareness. The avionics technologies such as glass cockpits and helmet-mounted display and targeting that were developed during Generation 4.5 have been further advanced and integrated into totally new aircraft designs, which draw on lessons learned from fourth-generation stealth, VTOL and composite aircraft like the F-117, B-2 and AV-8 Harrier. Download high resolution version (1200x943, 171 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1200x943, 171 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2331x1800, 376 KB) Description : A Lockheed F-35 in flying Photographer : US Air Force http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2331x1800, 376 KB) Description : A Lockheed F-35 in flying Photographer : US Air Force http://www. ... Harrier AV-8A - worlds first operational fighter jet with thrust vectoring A thrust-vectoring jet engine nozzle Thrust vectoring is the ability of an aircraft or other vehicle to direct the thrust from its main engine(s) in a direction other than parallel to the vehicles longitudinal axis. ... Composite materials (or composites for short) are engineering materials made from two or more components. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... F-117 stealth attack plane Stealth technology is a sub-discipline of electronic countermeasures which covers a range of techniques used with aircraft, ships and missiles, in order to make them less visible (ideally invisible) to radar, infrared and other detection methods. ... For other uses, see Radar (disambiguation). ... Avionics is a portmanteau which literally means aviation electronics. ... The United States Air Forces F-117A Nighthawk is the worlds first operational aircraft designed to exploit low-observable stealth technology. ... The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is a multi-role stealth heavy bomber, capable of deploying both conventional and nuclear weapons. ... See also Hawker Siddeley Harrier The Harrier II is a second generation, vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) light_attack jet aircraft used by the United States Marine Corps, Royal Air Force, Spanish Armada and Italian navy. ...

Of these, only the American F-22 Raptor, put into production in 2004, is operational, and is often regarded as the first of a new generation of fighters, termed the "fifth-generation". Design elements of the F-35 Lightning II (formerly Joint Strike Fighter) currently in pre-production, and the F-22 Raptor have influenced continued development of fourth-generation designs, and the shape of design work for the Russian PAK FA and other countries' long-term fighter development projects (for instance, the rumoured Chinese Shenyang J-XX project, Indian Medium Combat Aircraft and South Korean KFX). Later cancelled technology demonstrators of fifth-generation fighter aircraft include the United States YF-23 Black Widow II (which lost the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition to what is now the F-22), Boeing X-32 (which lost the Joint Strike Fighter competition to the YF-35) and McDonnell Douglas X-36, and the Soviet Union Project 1.42, later upgraded by Russia to version 1.44. F-22 redirects here. ... The F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, a multi-role aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air-to-air combat. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... According to the reports of the Janes Defence Weekly, China has already launched its next generation stealth aircraft fighter programme, and Shenyang Aircraft Industry Co. ... MCA speculative drawing The twin-engined Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA) is a stealth 5th generation strike aircraft being developed by India. ... The KFX is South Koreas project to develop an indigenous fighter aircraft for the Republic of Korea Air Force. ... The Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 Black Widow II â€” unofficially named by Northrop after its P-61 Black Widow â€” was a prototype fighter aircraft designed for the United States Air Force. ... For information about the video game of the same name, see F_22 Raptor (game). ... The Boeing X-32 was a multi-purpose jet fighter in the Joint Strike Fighter contest. ... The McDonnell Douglas X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft was a subscale prototype jet designed to fly without the traditional tail surfaces common on most aircraft. ... The Mikoyan Project 1. ...

In Service

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Lockheed/BAE/Northrop F-35 Lockheed Trident missile C-130 Hercules; in production since the 1950s, now as the C-130J Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is an aerospace manufacturer formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661) is a major aerospace and defense corporation, originally founded by William Edward Boeing. ... F-22 redirects here. ...

In Development

Image File history File links Flag_of_India. ... MCA speculative drawing The twin-engined Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA) is a stealth 5th generation strike aircraft being developed by India. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Iran. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Peoples_Republic_of_China. ... According to the reports of the Janes Defence Weekly, China has already launched its next generation stealth aircraft fighter programme, and Shenyang Aircraft Industry Co. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Russia. ... Sukhoi (pronounced [suk-oi]) (Ð¡ÑƒÑ…Ð¾Ð¹) is a major Russian military fighter aircraft manufacturer. ... The PAK FA (or PAK-FA), also known as the Sukhoi Su-50 is a fifth-generation fighter jet which is being developed by Russia. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Russia. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_India. ... The PAK FA (or PAK-FA), also known as the Sukhoi Su-50 is a fifth-generation fighter jet which is being developed by Russia. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_South_Korea. ... The KFX is South Koreas project to develop an indigenous fighter aircraft for the Republic of Korea Air Force. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Lockheed/BAE/Northrop F-35 Lockheed Trident missile C-130 Hercules; in production since the 1950s, now as the C-130J Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is an aerospace manufacturer formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. ... The F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, a multi-role aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air-to-air combat. ...

Technology Demonstrators

Image File history File links Flag_of_Japan. ... The ATD-X Shinnshinn is Japans aircraft which is being developed by Ministry of Defense (Japan) Technical Research and Development Institute for research. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Russia. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The Mikoyan Project 1. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... F-22 redirects here. ... The Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 was a prototype fighter aircraft designed for the United States Air Force. ... The Bird of Prey was a black project aircraft, intended to demonstrate stealth technology, developed by McDonnell Douglas. ... The McDonnell Douglas X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft was a subscale prototype jet designed to fly without the traditional tail surfaces common on most aircraft. ... X-35C The X-35 was a experimental aircraft by Lockheed Martin for the Joint Strike Fighter Program. ... The Boeing X-32 was a multi-purpose jet fighter in the Joint Strike Fighter contest. ...

Contents

Introduction

Piston engine fighters

World War I

1919-1938

World War II

Jet-powered fighters

First-generation jet fighters (1944-1953)

Second generation (1953-1960)

Third generation (1960-1970)

Fourth generation (1970-1990)

Generation 4.5 (1990-2000)

Fifth generation (2000-Present)

In Service

In Development

Technology Demonstrators

See also

References

External links

Contents

Introduction GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Piston engine fighters

World War I

1919-1938

World War II

Jet-powered fighters

First-generation jet fighters (1944-1953)

Second generation (1953-1960)

Third generation (1960-1970)

Fourth generation (1970-1990)

Generation 4.5 (1990-2000)

Fifth generation (2000-Present)

In Service

In Development

Technology Demonstrators

See also

References

External links

Introduction