Fighter Jets both old and new - A picture thread...

As long as we're thinking in Russian:
Mig-31 FIREFOX!
http://www.brain-tuning.de/images/firefox1.jpg

That's from Gundam, dude.

??

you guys might like Jets'n'Guns

ha i'm gonna de-lurk for this one...

ACHTUNG!

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/YankeeAirMuseum2006/Highlights/SpitfireCloseup.jpg

http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/935206089-00.jpg

http://www.przygodoskop.pl/024/inne/adventurer02.jpg

http://www.oldtimerfan.nl/wp-content/galerij/gloster/meteor-f8/024dbdaabdb020423cccc415f716ee20_n.jpg

if this were an animal it'd be in a specimen jar on some victorian amateur scientist's shelf...

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/NorthAmerican/Aero37G7.jpg

http://www.math.univ-montp2.fr/~mohamadi/dasilvaweb/A10.jpg
A-10

xpost-What is that? A De Havallend or sommat? Time to step it up with this bad boy:

http://robocat.users.btopenworld.com/Images/f117a.jpg

http://robocat.users.btopenworld.com/Images/f117a.jpg

xpost x2 even.

it's a canberra mr aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

this isn't:

http://www.spyflight.co.uk/images/jpgs/buccaneer/buccs%20in%20echelon.jpg

naw mine was a meteor. canberra is big plane.

The thread title specified jets, but screw that...

Sopwith Camel

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/images/sopwith_camel_original_500.jpg

Fokker Triplane

http://www.airtoair.net/store/cw2/Assets/product_full/10sport-fokkera.jpg

Fokker D.VII

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Air_Power/WWI_Combat/AP4G6.jpg

So many choices for WWII (personal faves - the P-47, F6F Hellcat, and the Mark V. Spitfire) but this may be the overall best:

The Mitsubishi Zero

http://www.orgsites.com/ca/cafsocalphoto/zero.jpg

Northrop XP-79

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/P79-1.jpg

Fighter version of the Flying Wing. Wasn't designed with any armaments, but with a magnesium leading edge. The idea was to ram through the tail section of your opponent with the fortified wing.

So much of my childhood was devoted to fighter plane lust. I love the A-10. Hands down my favorite airplane ever. I was also big into WWII ones, but never really liked the early US / Soviet cold war planes - all those 50's and 60's jets never really did it for me.

Other favorites:

P-38 Lighting:
http://www.kelleycows.com/images/p38.jpg

Messerschmitt ME 109:
http://www.zap16.com/images/ME_109.jpg

B-25 Mitchell:
http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/Nellis2005/Highlights/NellisB25From2oClock.jpg

And not a plane, but the most awesome helicopter ever = The Mi-24 Hind:

Oops

http://www.isra.org/drawing_a_bead/mi24-hind-helicopter.jpg

F-100

http://home.worldonline.nl/~hsc/F100/F-100%20ThB.jpg

I believe this was the first operational supersonic fighter.

P-26. One of the only fighters built by Boeing.

http://www.air-and-space.com/19780903%20Chino/31%20P-26A%20N3378G%20left%20front%20l.jpg

These fockes were Messerschmitts! </stan boardman>

Messerschmitt Bf 109
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/BF109BLACK6.jpg

(bah xpost, duplicate Messerschmitt)

Northrop built some wacky stuff. Here's the XP-56

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5d/Northrop_XP-56_238353.jpg

These Fockes aren't Messerschmitts!

Focke-Wulf Fw 190
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/Fw_190As_in_flight.jpg

high-altitude phallic symbol

http://www.espionageinfo.com/images/eeis_03_img0989.jpg

http://lynchmob.freeyellow.com/02-john-h-p-51.jpg

p-51 mustang

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/s-3b/images/S3Viking_1.jpg

S-3 Viking, AKA the plane Dubya got to play soldier on. Mission accomplished, indeed.

F7F Tigercat

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/F7F-3P_Tigercat.jpg/250px-F7F-3P_Tigercat.jpg

F8F. About as badass as you can get.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/F8F1boxeroversf.jpg

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-189588-1165803100.jpeg

f-111

skua

http://www.jaapteeuwen.com/ww2aircraft/pictures/jpg/blackburn%20b24%20skua%20I.jpg

XB-70. Everything else can fuck off.

http://www.kheichhorn.de/assets/images/north_American_XB70_Valkyrie.jpg

P-40 with the Flying Tigers

http://www.walnutridge-aaf.com/P40a.jpg

scratch one Italian battleship

http://www.aviation-news.co.uk/media/July-2.jpg

Oh man, I spent countless hours as a kid reading about military aircraft. Here's Romania's lone WWII fighter, the IAR-80:

http://www.casusbelli.com.ar/aire/2gm/otrasnaciones/IAR_80.jpg

ripped from today's headlines

http://www.jetfly.hu/rovatok/repules/katonai/hirek/topten_bombers_070518/Tu95_V.jpg

The incredibly ungainly-looking Saab Tunnan:
http://avions.legendaires.free.fr/Images/Gj29.jpg

Messerschmitt Me-163. Scary scary scary. Five minutes of rocket fuel and a 50% chance of exploding on you.

http://www.kheichhorn.de/assets/images/me163b-1a_takeoff.jpg

I see your Bear, and raise you one Peacemaker

http://www.globalaircraft.org/photos/planephotos/b-36_1.jpg

(always a favorite of mine, due to stories about them from my grandpa)

scratch one Italian battleship

HAI, I SUNK YR BISMARCK TOO

http://www.vectorsite.net/avsword_1.jpg

(always a favorite of mine, due to stories about them from my grandpa)

Same here. When my parents first moved to California, my dad got a job at Convair working on the jet engine retrofits to the initial prop-only B-36s. Best thing I like about the B-36s is the unusual sound they made - it's like the worlds largest drone symphony. (I've got a recording of a B-36 flyby - it's wonderful)

Here's another B-36

http://people.virginia.edu/~rjr/engines/b36.jpg

oops erm 'my bad'

THIS is a canberra (or 3):

http://www.aeroplaneart.com.au/Images/JSJ_PC_English_Electric_Canberras_B_Mk_2.jpg

The Junkers Ju-390, designed to fly transatlantic missions and bomb the east coast of America:

http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/imgs/ju390_2.jpg

Smile for the camera!

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/staff/simongray/u2.jpg

http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/air-ww2/beaufighterattack.jpg

I remember my grandpa talking about testing the B-36s with the jet engines (and maybe JATO as well?) and counting the times he almost died (at least a dozen).

B-47 with full RATO packs going.

http://www.tayyareci.com/amerikanucak/postww2/b-47.jpg

Always liked the B-47 because it was the first model kit I ever built.

The second model kit I built was a B-58 Hustler

http://www.globalaircraft.org/photos/planephotos/b-58_1.jpg

TOMBOT to thread, kinda curious about his take on the f-35 debacle, where the money went, and if it's a good plane

I don't have a lot of good insight into how the F-35 went so wrong, other than collusion between parts of the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin to force the DoD to put all its eggs in one basket.

Here's a decent piece on what might ought to happen to avoid repeating those mistakes in the future: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-air-force-could-avoid-f-35-trap-47737

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35947/navy-f-a-18-squadron-commanders-take-on-ai-repeatedly-beating-real-pilot-in-dogfight

Fun read.