Sweden offers Gripen C/D to Croatia
Representatives from the Swedish government formally offered 12 new Saab JAS 39 Gripen C/D multi-role fighters to Croatia on September 9.
KAI’s KF-X prototype enters final assembly
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) launched final assembly of its first Korea Fighter eXperiment (KF-X) multi-role fighter prototype at its Sacheon facility in the South Gyeongsang province on September 1.
YF-23 Black Widow II: Diamonds Aren't Forever
The story behind how Northrop's YF-23 Black Widow II lost a near-decade-long 'race' with the Lockheed's YF-22 to win the Advanced Tactical Fighter programme.
New F-35A, F-15EX Air National Guard bases announced
On August 14, the US Air Force (USAF) announced plans to equip Air National Guard (ANG) bases in Florida and Oregon – which operate F-15C/D Eagle fighters – with F-35As and F-15EXs from 2022.
Denmark's first F-35A takes shape
The Danish Ministry of Defence announced that the nation’s first Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II had passed through the Electronic Mate and Alignment Station (EMAS) in Fort Worth, Texas, on August 6.
The Need for Speed: 10 of the World's Fastest Combat Aircraft!
Key.Aero explores ten of the quickest combat aircraft to have served operationally in the last 50 years.
Five years of USMC F-35B ops
On July 31, 2015, the USMC officially declared that its F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter fleet had achieved its initial operational capability.
System of systems could bankrupt Tempest
The UK’s Tempest programme which aims to have a next generation fighter and supporting assets in service from 2035 could see spiralling costs if it takes a narrow system of systems approach.
Aircraft Report: Eurofighter Typhoon
Its development began in 1983 and it now has a supply chain employing over 100,000 people: Key.Aero analyses the Eurofighter Typhoon, an ultra-sophisticated, multirole fighter
Boeing partner with MHI on Japanese F-15J upgrades
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Boeing recently signed a direct commercial sale agreement to support upgrades to Japan’s F-15J multi-role fighter fleet.
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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