Switzerland bids fond farewell to world's only civil-operated Mirage IIIDS
The end of an era was marked at Payerne Air Base in Switzerland on May 25, when former Swiss Air Force-operated Dassault Mirage IIIDS (ex-serial J-2012, now registered as HB-RDF) – the only airworthy, civil-registered example of the fighter in the world – completed its final flight
Russian Aerospace Forces receive additional Su-34s from UAC
Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation – a subsidiary of the state-owned Rostec State Corporation – announced on June 1 that it has delivered another batch of Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback fighter-bombers to the Russian Aerospace Forces
How the USAF is planning to massively change its frontline fighter fleets
The USAF’s fighter force comprises a disparate mix of aircraft types – some of which are rather old – and there are urgent plans to recapitalize the fleet with a mix of new and upgraded types, as Jon Lake explains
NASA readies ex-USMC F/A-18D for chase mission ahead of X-59 testing
A former USMC-operated F/A-18D Hornet that was acquired by NASA from the US Navy in 2021 has been rolled out at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center – a part of Edwards AFB in California – after being rejuvenated and repainted ahead of its planned use in supporting the testing of the administration’s X-59 QueSST technology demonstrator
Argentine Navy scraps plan to reactivate ex-French Super Étendards
The Argentine Navy has abandoned plans to reactivate the five former French Fleet Air Arm-operated Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard IVM naval strike fighters that were purchased in 2019, as the nation is unable to return the aircraft to operational service
Where will Ukraine's F-16s come from and how will pilots be trained?
Kyiv’s quest for Western-made fighters was handed a major boost of May 19, when US President Joe Biden backed international plans for Ukrainian Air Force pilots to be trained to fly the long-desired F-16 Fighting Falcon and for European operators of the multi-role fighter to transfer their ‘Vipers’ to Ukraine
How does the US Navy qualify its F-35C pilots for carrier ops?
Preparing pilots for deployment is a critical aspect of the US Navy’s mission. Soren Nielsen examines how VFA-97 ‘Warhawks’ gained their carrier qualifications after transitioning to the Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II strike fighter
Australian KC-30A conducts refuelling trials with JASDF F-15Js
The Royal Australian Air Force has completed air-to-air refuelling trials with Boeing F-15J/DJ Eagle fighters from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force for the first time
Turkey rolls out first TF-X stealth fighter prototype
As Turkey continues to demonstrate the growing might of its domestic aerospace/defence industry, Turkish Aerospace Industries – the nation’s largest aircraft manufacturer – publicly unveiled the first prototype of its new fifth-generation stealth fighter, the National Combat Aircraft (MMU) during a ceremony in Ankara on May 1
Denmark receives another F-35A Lightning II
The Royal Danish Air Force took delivery of another Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II at Luke AFB in Arizona on April 12; increasing the number of aircraft delivered to Denmark to date to seven airframes
Fighter aircraft were not the first heavier-than-air military aircraft. During the First World War bi-planes with a pilot and a crew member would carry out. Guns were soon added to these aircraft and the fighters were born; the term dogfight became synonymous with the new form of aerial combat. These aircraft would also crudely drop bombs with a crew member simply throwing the bombs out of the aircraft. After the First World War, fighter development led to the single wing, enclosed cockpit, propeller powered aircraft such as the RAF Hawker Hurricane, Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the United States Army Airforce North American Aviation P-51 Mustang. After the war, the RAF Gloster Meteor was the RAF’s first operational jet fighter and it was rapidly joined by fast jets from France, Russia and the USA.
Today, the roles of military fast jets have hardly changed, from intercepting other fast jets fighters or bombers, to maintaining air superiority, they are bombing air defences and photographing bombed sites for battle damage assessment as well as escorting slower, more vulnerable aircraft.
Different Types of Fighter Planes
From the first aerial reconnaissance aircraft, the Wright brothers military flyer, or Model A, sold to the US military in 1909, it took 45 years until the United States Airforce’s North American F-100 Super Sabre became the world’s first operational supersonic fighter in 1954. There has been a huge amount of technological development between the Super Sabre and the world’s first operational fifth generation fighter, the United States Marine Corp’s Lockheed Martin F-35B/C Lightning II, which entered service in 2015. All fixed wing aircraft, since the advent of jet fighters in World War Two, have been a variety of designs to meet the military’s changing needs. Jet engines were in development before World War Two, but it was only near the end of that war that the first operational fast jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262, took to the skies.
Fighters steadily developed to fly higher and faster, carry more payloads, both missiles and bombs, and became supersonic. The need for greater speed saw the delta wing shape for supersonic flight, air-to-air missiles were used in the Korean War for the first time, and it was only later that fighters were equipped with radar, allowing for longer range interception. The 1960s saw the development of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability with the Royal Navy’s Hawker Siddeley Harrier, which is still in service with the Indian military. Propeller powered fighter aircraft did not end with the flights of the Gloster Meteor and the 1950s saw experiments with VTOL propeller powered aircraft that sat on their tails in a vertical position.
Since the 1980s fast jets have become stealthy, first with the now retired Lockheed Martin F-117 Nighthawk which was primarily a bomber, to the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, an interceptor, and the multirole Lockheed Martin F-35, which are both said to have very small radar signatures.
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