-Back when men were MEN, they went out and tried stuff. It didn’t always work, but at least they had balls. Now, bipeds who pretend to be MEN but aren’t just snarkily ask “what could possibly go wrong?”-
The 1950’s were the golden age of jets. Every year they came out with a couple of new jet fighters. Not only did they built them, they deployed them. They just went out and tried stuff.
Jet Fighters 1950’s
Fighter # Built
FH-1 Phantom 62
F2 Banshee 895
F3D Skyknight 237
F9F Panther 1327
F94 Starfire 800
F-80 Shooting Star 6,557
F-84 ThunderJet 7,524
F-86 Saber 7,800
F-89 Scorpion 1050
F-100 Super Saber 2300
F-101 Voodoo 180
F-102 Delta Dagger 1000
F-104 Star Fighter 1127
F-105 Thunderchief 833
F-106 Delta Dart 342
FJ-2/FJ-3 Fury 732
A4 Skyhawk 2960
F-4 Phantom 5195
F-5 Tiger 1600
F-6 Skyray 422
A-7 Corsair 1545
F-8 Crusader 1219
Indeed. And then there were the “X” planes ... X-1 thru 5, X-13, X-14, and X-15.
I loved the F-8 Crusader, grew up on my dad’s squadron’s flight line
I had a fellow aircraft worker almost turn violent at my mere suggestion ( back in the mid 90s ) that we won’t see hardly any new aircraft prototypes like we used to due to tight budgets and computer designs. He was deeply upset that anybody would suggest such a thing. I said there will tons of planes in the future but only flying on CADM programs with just about a handful per decade joining us in real life. I see where I may have overestimated that. I should have bet him money. The F-22 and F-35 had already came out.