Number 8
Posted on 05/06/2005 2:01:49 PM PDT by squidly
These are the top ten fighter aircraft ever, as chosen by the folks who choose such things at The Military Channel.
The scoring system is based on five criteria:
Kill ratio
Fear factor (the amount of terror the plane struck in its enemies' hearts, sounds kinda subjective to me)
Innovation
Production rating (cost, ease of maintenance, etc.)
Service length
So without further ado.....
10. F/A-22 Raptor. Top of the scale on innovation and fear factor, but gets N/A for kill ratio and service length, and a low production rating due to its $200 million per plane price tag.
9. Sea Harrier FA2. Good kill ratio, fearsome fear factor per the Argentines, top marks on innovation, and a lengthy service length. Not so hot on production rating - maintenance issues, mainly.
8. Sopwith Camel. Another strong kill ratio for a British plane, also high scores in fear factor and service length. I can't remember what kind of innovation score it got. Low on production rating, as it was a maintenance nightmare.
7. Messerschmidt 262. Highest innovation score on the list. Good kill ratio, and practically off the scale for fear factor. Short service length and high cost keep it down at #7.
6. Supermarine Spitfire. Strong scores across the board without being head of the class in any one category. TMC's panel of experts kept going on about what a pretty plane it was.
4 - tie. F-86 Sabre and Mig-15. F-86 had a rockin' kill ratio, and was strong in every other category save innovation, as it ripped off the ME 262 in several ways. The Russkie plane had high fear factor and service length, and the best production rating on the list, but scored less spectacularly in kill ratio and was not innovative.
3. F-4 Phantom. Longest service length on the list. High innovation score due to its being the first plane to carry such a wide variety of armaments. Good fear factor and production rating. Somewhat modest kill ratio.
2. F-15C Eagle. Best kill ratio on the list. Pretty much maxed out in every other category as well, save production rating due to its high unit cost.
1. P-51D Mustang. High in all categories. Slightly lower on innovation due to its borrowing of the Spitfire's Merlin engine, but still a good innovation score thanks to being the first fighter plane to use drop tanks.
From Tibbets's website, it would appear that they have events planned for the 60th anniversary this summer, but it's hard to say.
http://www.enolagay.org/events.html
Number 8
Number 7
Number 6
F-14 is the best fighter jet ever created.
Numbers 5
Number 4
I saw where you managed to find the BRA thread, but not this one!
Number 2
Number One
"The F-4's performance in combat was too spotty for it to be #3, imo. However, it's versatility and long service do earn it a place in what should have been the lower reaches of the top 10."
Wasn't the F-4 a big fave at one time with the Israeli airforce? Maybe heavily modified, or copied (Kfir was a copy of the Mirage I think). Perhaps that was also considered by that author. Paint a blue star of David on the side of it, and pretty much any plane in the sky will cause skid marks in robes all over the middle east. ;')
Waggs, I love your sense of humor. More dead time in Purgatory for laughing at that one though. ;')
F-86 had a rockin' kill ratio, and was strong in every other category save innovation, as it ripped off the ME 262 in several ways.The only way the F-86 "ripped off" the Me-262's "innovation" was an axial-flow engine, which was one of the Me-262's worst features: low-life, high-maintainence, unreliable, bad throttle response.
And the Me-262's kill ratio was scored against the bomber stream. If it had to match against a contempory or near-contemptory jet like the Gloster Meteor, Lockhheed P=80, or deHavilland Vampire (even with their "old-fasshioned" centrifugal-flow engines) it would have been toast.
(In my defense,[IF you noticed] I made NO mention of the bra, OR it's contents :-D)
The P-51 Mustang was dominant at the time.
Yes I can.
First I was talking salamis, and secondly I was hungry, and thirdly stop getting me in trouble ;-)
As my friend from Georgia would say: "Not anyone's pretty child," but very very effective.
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