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

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

Mig-25 Foxbat

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/MiG-25_fig2agrau_USAF.jpg

I didn't realize until years later that the NATO codenames all began with the same letter (Foxbat, Fiddler, Flogger, etc.)

Mig-29

http://lankapage.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/air_mig-29_lg.jpg

F4F Wildcat

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/55/F4F-3_new_pitot_tube_of_later_model.jpg

I love the old-style AAC insignia.

Blohm und Voss wins the WWII WTF contest. Here's the BV-141. Yes the cockpit is on the wing

http://aeroweb.brooklyn.cuny.edu/database/aircraft/showimage.php?id=7108

OK what?

BV-142

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/images/bv142-2.jpg

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Aircraft/Attack/Ov10From2oClock.jpg

OK what?

The idea was that the asymmetrical layout would give better visibility (and it did) and that the added drag on one side would be offset by the torque from the motor (it was). However the initial engine wasn't powerful enough and by the time a better engine was outfitted, the FW-189 was on the scene.

Here's a FW-189

http://www.afwing.com/combat/Normandie%20Nieman/fw189.jpg

F-107

http://www.globalaircraft.org/photos/planephotos/f-107_1.jpg

I see Ned was right!

The B58 is hands down the best-looking warplane the US has ever designed.

I used to have the Monogram 1/72 scale B36, I never did finish building & painting it, it was too big!

That Junkers 390 IIRC did a one-off test flight and got pretty close to the US coast. The other "Amerika-Bomber", the ME-264 was a sinister looking machine:

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/images/lrg0067.jpg

XP-67 Bat. Looked great, but not much of a performer

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/061024-F-1234P-031.jpg

Weird and fucked-up looking the old bv141 might have been, I'd still put the JU287 up at the top of the luftwaffe WTF league:

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/images/ju287-1.jpg