My personal favourite has got to be the Spitfire. The sound of the engines is like music to my ears. Not to mention that amazing wing design!

Never has so much been owed by so many to so few.
--Winston Churchill

Mr. Churchill said that in regards to the Royal Air Corps pilots who, though heavily outnumbered, effectively disabled the Luftwaffe bomber squadrons and saved England in the 'Battle of Britain' during the early days of WWII.

The Air Corps did this in Hawker Hurricanes and, for the most part, Supermarine Spitfires.


BTW, the Spitfire's wing was designed after a hawk's wing.

Yer...rite...good one

just put it this way when the f-22 was escorted by 2 f-15 fighters the f-22 pilot said alright boys lets put it into afterburner, the response of the 2 f-15 pilots were "we are already at full afterburner". That my fellow aviation pals is what we call super cruise going supersonic without afterburner, and you can thank that to Pratt & Whitney leaders in making dependable engines since the start of flight. When the f-22 pilot did put it into full afterburner he said goodbye to the other pilots and left them in his exhaust.

The FW-190 was superb, but I think later variants of the Spitfire were able to match, then exceed it. The FW-190 was actually made in pretty large numbers, but it was already over at that point, for every FW-190 Germany made, the US made 10 planes, Britain 2, Russia 5, PLUS they had the gas and pilots to fly them.




I don't believe this one. The F-15 is capable of Mach 2.5, the SR-71 Mach 3.2. Sure the F-22 can supercruise, but so can an F-16 in clean config (no wing stores GE engine) I'd guess there is no reason the F-22 can't exceed mach 2 on dry thrust since Concorde could do it, but it would surprise me if it's speed is not limited by stealth requirements (air intake config etc...)

By major conflict and theatre: WW I - Fokker Eindekker or Spad, WWII - Bf109 or Hurricane in the West, F6F in the East (I'm sure the Martin Baker V would have been the eventual winner, but it never went into series production), Korea: F86 Sabre (it's a bloody scandal our government gave the Soviets RR's engine technology for the MIG 15). The Cold War: The boffins in the back rooms because they made it too expensive (politically and financially) for the Soviets to keep up. Currently the most useful sounding fighter is the F15 but in reallity, they are more of a threat because whilst they are undoubtably very efficient fighting machines, nobody is silly enough to take one on. The are therefore more of a menace to "Friendly" commercial traffic over the North Sea than to any enemy!

But if I have to choose one, it would have to be the P51D. Grounds: Effect, range, numbers, flyability, speed and sound.

PM

And the stealthiest - The C172 flown by Mattius Rust from the former Western Germany to Red Square!

I would say the best plane would possibly be the Mig-31. Mach 2.35 cruise for over a thousand miles firing missiles that can fly a few hundred miles. Any AWACS plane is good as dead if there's some Mig-31s up there.

Yes...

But then again, the F-16 couldn't supercruise at Mach 1.72 with six AMRAAMS and two Sidewinders for a few hundred miles like the F-22 can.

the EUROFIGHTER without dout ive been to RAF Coningsby where its based and its just awsome seeing them takeoff in threes down the runway. seeing it takeoff and the go vertical. This aircraft is truly amasing

if it is world war two it will have to be the p51d mustang.if it is recent it would have to be the f16 fighting falcon.

I have 3 personal favourites, personal being the operative word here.

1) Supermarine Spitfire.
2) English Electric Lightning. (amazing no-one has mentioned it yet)!
3) Eurofighter Typhoon. (link http://www.eurofighter.com/default.asp )

Thanks.......

the f-16 fighting falcon along with the f-15 strike eagle then the f/a 18 hornet not to be forgoten the best of all time none other than the p51d mustang voted number one on the top ten fighters from the military channel.

For the prop section it would have to be FW-190D-9,
as for the Korean era it would be the F-86,
for the Vietnam era it would the (Rhino) F-4,
and for the modern day type would be the F-15.


Regards

the answer to that question is subjective. everyone is going to have some different answers. ww2 best aircraft P51 mustang. vietnam fighters F4 Phantom 2 post vietnam to end of 20th century F18 Hornet. early 21st century F22 Raptor most everyone is going to have different answers, and that is ok.

Boing ! You just listed my two best fighters of all time the P51 Mustang and the FA18 Hornet.

This is the beat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIGG-Fs6Zjg...PL&index=17

the sr-71 isnt even a fighter anyways its a spy plane. one of the best fighters i think is the F-14. The F-14 is a great fighter jet but the F/A-18 is a great fighter also with its versitility and rage of weaponry for that sixe of plane

the P-51 mustang was the greatest prop fighter and F-4 was another great fighter aslo










regards,
Mav