Posted on 06/15/2018 7:14:01 AM PDT by Simon Green
So what are the best and worst fighter aircraft of all time? What plane would you pick for a war in the sky?
On the surface, the questions seem easy to answer. One might look at which planes performed the best in combat as opposed to fighters that did not. Or, one could look at which planes had the best technology, took advantage of historical circumstances, or utilized a combination of the two.
Does America dominate the field of best fighters? What about Russia? Does China get any mentions? Does any one nation have more negative mentions? All good questions.
Robert Farley, one of the world’s best security experts, gives us his breakdown. Over two articles, combined for your reading pleasure written several years ago, provides a strong look at the contenders for best fighters, but also, the worst of the worst.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
The worst:
5. Royal B.E.2
4. Brewster Buffalo
3. Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3
2. Century Series (F-101, F-102, F-104, F-105)
1. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23
The best:
5. Spad S.XIII
4. Grumman F6F Hellcat
3. Messerschmitt Me-262 Swallow
2. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 “Fishbed”
1. McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle
Let the debate commence!
Any list without the P-51 Mustang is bogus.
ME262 was not good, but it was the first to see combat.
I’m surprised the Spitfire and FW 190 were not considered.
Indeed. ME262 is fun and interesting, but did not make a difference in the war.
Spitfire, FW 190 and P-51 Mustang would be better choices.
Agreed. The Supermarine Spitfire as well. The FW190 needs to be included and possibly the ME109. The ME262 was an excellent fighter aircraft, but better as an interceptor. Its primary detractor was maintenance. The finest multi-role was the F4U Corsair and the P40 should receive honorable mention.
Don’t forget the P-47 or the often overlooked Hawker Hurricane.
The ME262 was not that dominant because they weren’t that many of them. The Yak-3 was really good, despite the bad quality of the build.
Disagree on the Mig-21. There were just lots of them. The Mig-15 was much better during its time.
Spitfire and P-38 in WW2 merely because of their longevity.
I believe power:weight and turn radius were strikes against the Mustang.
U.S. valued the weight of armor.
Any list that puts the century series in “worst” is compiled by idiots.
FW-190
ME-109
Spitfire
P-47
P-51
Leave any of these of the list and the list is suspect.
Leave ALL of them off and the list is nonsense.
The Finns showed the Soviets that the Brewster Buffalo was a great plane when flown by competent and motivated pilots.
F-14 TomCat should also be at the top of the list (and the Bombcat too)
F-4u Corsair
I always liked the hurricane and corsair.
The F8U Crusader is not mentioned. Should be considered.
Take the ME-262 off the list.
Exactly what I was thinking!
Didn’t care for the Hurricane but concur on the P-47, but mostly in the Close Air Support role.
World’s worst nose art.
(No offense, Marge)
The ME262 had horribly unreliable engines. It was an awesome breakthrough in many ways, but I see it more as a beta version that was forced into service because of the war.
Meanwhile, the Spitfire was an amazing design, but expensive. And they had to do some fancy stuff with the carbs to allow them to compete with the german injected engine planes.
In fact, as I’m typing this, I realize this whole thing is an exercise in futility because “best” can’t be nailed down. Technology constantly changes and, especially in wartime, designs come out that beat previous designs.
Heck, the zero was great partly because there was no extra weight for pilot protection. The Corsair was great except it couldn’t outturn a Zero, and get into a flat spin and you’ll learn why they called it the widowmaker.
I don’t see any as “best”. That said, there were a few that were terrible and should not have entered service. But at wartime sometimes you don’t get that luxury.
I knew two fighter pilots from WW2. One really liked the P-38 and the other swore by the P-47. Both felt the P-51 was a tad tender. Pilots put a lot of stock in “get me home”.
Our planes in the Pacific were so dominating because the Japs had lost all their pilots. By late 1944, our air cadets were being converted to bomber crews according to the CBS reports I am listening to from that period
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