Tactics, training and luck are the determining factors in who survives within visual range aerial combat. Despite the modern emphasis on beyond-visual-range combat, the vast majority of fighter versus fighter engagements have taken place at close ranges. The following ten are the best fighters for this mission. The order is more or less arbitrary, with different aircraft having the advantage at different altitudes and air speeds. By its nature, any top ten is simplistic and should serve as the basis for discussion rather than as a conclusion.

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10. McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15 Eagle

Once considered top dog, the F-15 is now making room for younger aircraft. In exercises, the type still does well, but this says more about the pilot quality than any inherent advantage of this platform in the WVR arena.  Well-armed, well-equipped and powerful, it is still an aircraft to be respected. In later exercises against India, it is reported to have been able to use superior tactics to defeat Su-30s, despite the Russian aircraft enjoying greater manoeuvrability at low speeds. Powerful and reliable, and flown by some of the best fighter pilots in the world (in USAF service), it remains an adversary worthy of great respect, especially at medium altitudes.

HMD/S: Yes

Advanced SRAAMs: Yes, AIM-9X, Python 4/5

Visual stealth: Poor

Thrust-to-weight ratio: Very good

High alpha performance: Poor

Sustained turn rates: Good (16 degree/sec)

Instantaneous turn rates: Good (21 deg/sec)

9. Chengdu J-10

Advanced SRAAMs: No, at present only PL-8

Visual stealth: Excellent

Thrust-to-weight ratio: Good

High alpha performance: Good

Sustained turn rates: Good

Instantaneous turn rates: Good

8. General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16

The Viper remains potent at the mission it was designed for: the close-in dogfight. The Viper has grown fatter with age, so the early Block aircraft are the most spritely, this combined with JHMCS and modern missiles, like the AIM-9X, Python 5 and  IRIS-T keep it a foe to respect. It is small and hard for its opponents to keep visual tabs on, it has an impressive turn rate and has better retention of energy than larger-winged peers like the Mirage 2000. Below 10K feet the F-16 is similar in performance to the Typhoon. Most F-16 models have a better thrust to weight ratio than the Super Hornet (when similarly equipped). The Python 5 is regarded as one of the best air-to-air missiles, it has a very large weapon engagement zone (WEZ) and a high resistance to countermeasures. According to one defence writer close to the UK Typhoon force, RAF pilots had greater respect for the F-16s than the Gripens that they have encountered in wargames.

HMD/S: Yes, JHMCS

Advanced SRAAMs: AIM-9X, Python 4/5 and IRIS-T

Visual stealth: Excellent.

Thrust-to-weight ratio: Good

High alpha performance: Good

Sustained turn rates: Good

Instantaneous turn rates: Very good (26deg/sec)

(If all this is too modern for you, have a look at the Top Ten World II fighters)

Was the Spitfire overrated? Full story here. A Lightning pilot’s guide to flying and fighting here. Find out the most effective modern fighter aircraft in beyond-visual range combat. The greatest fictional aircraft here. An interview with stealth guru Bill Sweetman here. The fashion of aircraft camo here. Interview with a Super Hornet pilot here. Most importantly, a pacifist’s guide to warplanes here. F-35 expose here. 

 

7. RAC MiG MiG-29

Despite its age the MiG-29 remains a fiercely capable dogfighter, sharing many of the weapon systems of the ‘Flanker’.  The Indian MiG-29K/KUB with the TopOwl helmet-mounted and R-73E is the best-equipped variant in the WVR scenario, but is normally limited to 7G, whereas land-based ’29s are 9G capable. When the MiG-35 enters service it will be the most agile fighter in the world in the low-speed regime, as anyone who has witnessed the physics defying antics of the MiG-29OVT will testify. Though thrust-vectoring, post-stall manoeuvring must be used very carefully to be effective, the MiG-35’s unsurpassed power -to-weight ratio should ensure it recovers lost energy states quickly. The tough structure offers a degree of battlefield protection according to MiG who have assessed the type’s performance in actual wars. According to at least one MiG-29 pilot, the type enjoys a small, but significant advantage over the F-16 in the merge. One USAF F-16C pilot (Mike McCoy of the 510th) who flew BFM against MiG-29s noted, “In a low-speed fight, fighting the ‘Fulcrum’ is similar to fighting an F-18 Hornet…But the ‘Fulcrum’ has a thrust advantage over the Hornet. An F-18 can really crank its nose around if you get into a slow-speed fight, but it has to lose altitude to regain the energy, which allows us to get on top of them. The MiG has about the same nose authority at slow speeds, but it can regain energy much faster. Plus the MiG pilots have that forty-five-degree cone in front of them into which they can fire an Archer and eat you up.” Luftwaffe MiG-29 Oberstleutenant Johann Koeck who flew against F-15s, F/A-18s and F-16s in extensive training exercises noted,” Inside ten nautical miles I’m hard to defeat, and with the IRST, helmet sight and ‘Archer’ I can’t be beaten. Period.”

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HMD/S: Yes

Advanced SRAAMs: No, but R-73 is still highly regarded. R-74 in the pipeline.

Visual stealth: Medium (poor in early versions due to smoky engines)

Thrust-to-weight ratio: Excellent

High alpha performance: Excellent

Sustained turn rates: Good

Instantaneous turn rates: Excellent (28deg/sec)

6. Saab Gripen

‘Lose sight, lose the fight‘ is an old dogfighting adage and it is very easy to lose sight of the tiny Gripen. Though not the most powerful fighter, it is agile, well-armed and gives its pilot good situational awareness. Some Gripen operators employ an advanced helmet-mounted sight in conjunction with IRIS-T missiles, a sobering prospect for potential adversaries. The IRIS-T is a highly regarded weapon, with excellent agility and target discrimination. The helmet-sight is an adaptation of the Typhoon helmet, the most advanced helmet in operational service. The Gripen preserves energy very well, is hard to spot and has the smallest IR signature of the fighters on this list.

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(Top Ten Swedish aeroplanes here)

Helmet Mounted Display/Sight: Yes: Cobra

Advanced SRAAMs: IRIS-T

Visual stealth: Excellent

Thrust-to-weight ratio: Good

High Alpha performance: Good

Sustained turn rates: Excellent

Instantaneous turn rates: Very good

5. Dassault Rafale

The Rafale can maintain higher Alpha manoeuvres than the Typhoon.  It is very agile, with an excellent man machine interface and the most advanced aircraft cannon. Like most carrier fighters it is docile in the low speed ranges that most within-visual-range fights take place at. Whereas The Typhoon excels at high speed high-altitude maneuverability, the Rafale excels at low speed and low altitude, though its high altitude performance has also impressed French pilots. At sea level, the Rafale is reported to have a superior instantaneous turn rate to Typhoon. One pilot who has flown Rafale, and is knowledgeable of the Typhoon’s performance, claims that below 10,000 ft it would ‘eat Typhoon’. The Rafale lacks a helmet-mounted sight and its high alpha performance is inferior to that of the Hornet family. The Rafale has reportedly done well in DACT exercises against the F-22. The Rafale is an extremely tough opponent in the WVR regime. MICA has an LOAL capability allowing targets in the ‘six o’clock’ to be engaged.

HMD/S: No

Advanced SRAAMs: Yes, MICA

Visual stealth: Medium

Thrust-to-weight ratio: Very good

High alpha performance: Very good

Sustained turn rates: Very good

Instantaneous turn rates: Excellent (especially at low level)

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4. McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F/A-18 Hornet/Super Hornet

The Bug family have excellent nose authority, JHMCS  and good missiles in the form of AIM-9X (or ASRAAM for RAAF legacy birds).  At low level they are the equal of any operational fighter, but at higher altitudes (and higher speeds) they are at a disadvantage against more modern aircraft like the Typhoon, Rafale and F-22. The legacy Hornet is 9G rated as opposed to the larger Super Hornet which is stressed up to 7G for normal operations (it is really the legacy F/A-18 that deserves this high ranking but the Super Hornet is also highly regarded in the ‘merge’).  It has been noted by F-16 pilots that Super Hornets lose energy quicker than Vipers at higher altitudes. In a slow fight, no Western fighters can match either the Bug or the Rhino. One pilot who has flown the Super Hornet recommended that I mention the ‘Turbo Nose down’, a manoeuvre which utilises the aircraft’s excess power to rapidly push the aircraft out of high alpha flight. Australian Hornets have demonstrated an 180° missile shot with the AIM-132, firing the missile at a target in the firing aircraft’s 6’o’ clock in the lock-on after launch mode. The so-called ‘Parthian Shot‘ is a defensive boon, but demands a wingman with nerves of steel and faith in the technology!

Read more about flying the Super Hornet here and here.

(For the sake of brevity the two F/A-18 family members share one entry.)

HMD/S: Yes

Advanced SRAAMs: ASRAAM, AIM-9X

Visual stealth: Medium

Thrust-to-weight ratio: Good

High alpha performance: Excellent

Sustained turn rates: Good

Instantaneous turn rates: Excellent

3. Eurofighter Typhoon

Wild turn rates, a true 9G performance and enormous excess power make the Typhoon a hell of a dogfighter; the highly regarded G-suits worn by Typhoon pilots increase tolerance to the high forces generated by the energetic Typhoon. It also features the most advanced helmet mounted sight in service (and the newer Striker 2 is, according to one independent tester, ‘superb’), a powerful cannon and the excellent IRIS-T and ASRAAM missiles. The combination of advanced missile and helmet imbue the Typhoon with a terrifying off-boresight missile shot capability. Testing of the Aerodynamic Modification Kit, which includes modified strakes, extended flaperons and mini-leading edge root extensions may go some way to rectifying Typhoon’s main limitation – a pedestrian high alpha performance. But the Typhoon is not an ‘angles fighter’ like the F/A-18 which relies on risky (as they drain energy quickly) but startling attacks in the merge; the Typhoon is an ‘energy fighter’ using its phenomenal ability to preserve energy in a dogfight to wear its opponents out. In short, if an opponent doesn’t get a Typhoon on his first attack he is in a very dangerous position as a large amount of excess thrust makes the aircraft a very energetic adversary.

In exercises against Indian Air Force, RAF Typhoons used their superior energy and acceleration to ‘reliably’ trounce Su-30MKIs.

F-22 pilots who ‘fought’ the Typhoon in DACT were impressed by its energy levels (especially in the first turn) and several Luftwaffe aircraft proudly displayed Raptor ‘kill’ silhouettes beneath their cockpits.  Like the Raptor, the Typhoon has such a formidable reputation that any ‘victories’ against it in training exercises make excellent boasts. At medium to high altitudes, the type is generally superior to the teen fighters in the WVR regime. According to one Typhoon pilot, its dog-fighting abilities are a close match to the Raptor’s, but Typhoon benefits from being smaller and better armed.

HMD/S: Yes

Advanced SRAAMs: ASRAAM, IRIS-T

Visual stealth: Medium

Thrust-to-weight ratio: Excellent

High alpha performance: Poor

Sustained turn rates: Excellent

Instantaneous turn rates: Excellent

2. Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor

The Raptor’s excellent power-to-weight ratio, low wing-loading and 2D thrust-vectoring make it a fierce opponent in the visual range dogfight. It is let down by its lack of helmet-mounted sight and its large size. Until 2016 it was armed with the geriatric AIM-9M, but it now carries the AIM-9X. The internal carriage of its AIM-9X limits the way they can be used, and it only carries two. According to Typhoon pilots who ‘fought’ against it, the Raptor loses energy very quickly when employing thrust vectoring. The Raptor pilot likes to keep the fight high and fast. The F-22 has never been seriously challenged in wargames or DACT exercises- though the WVR regime is not its strongest card it is still extremely hard to beat, to the point that any ‘kills’ scored by pilots against the Raptor become newsworthy. Its pilots are, outside of adversary units, probably the best in the world.

HMD/S: No

Advanced SRAAMs: Yes, AIM-9X

Visual stealth: Poor

Thrust-to-weight ratio: Excellent

High Alpha performance: Excellent

Sustained turn rates: Excellent  (28 deg/sec at 20K ft)

Instantaneous turn rates: Excellent

1. Sukhoi Su-35 

The Sukhoi Su-27 is no slouch in the dogfight, and this advanced derivative is even more potent; the fighter, which is now in service with the Russian air force in small numbers, benefits from an additional 7,000Ibs of thrust combined with a variety of refinements. The Su-35’s engines, at maximum reheat, generate a staggering 62,000Ibs of thrust, which when combined with the ‘Flanker’ series superb aerodynamic configuration and vectored thrust nozzles, create an aircraft unparalleled in low-speed manoeuvrability. Whereas the F-22 relies on two-dimensional thrust vectoring, the Su-35 utilises 3D nozzles and a robust flight control system that have been perfected over the last thirty years.  A Su-35 (ably demonstrated by Sergei Bogdan) held the crowds of Paris 2013 spellbound with its demonstration of dramatic post-stall manoeuvring.

The biggest question mark with the Su-35s within-range combat effectiveness is the degree to which the enormous thrust and robust engines aid energy preservation. The Su-35 unique abilities will require unique tactics – if flown by well-trained pilots, the Su-35 will prove a worthy adversary to any in-service fighter in the vicious world of the low-speed furball.

HMD/S: Yes

Advanced SRAAMs: R-73E/M

Visual stealth: Poor

Thrust-to-weight ratio: Excellent

High alpha performance: Excellent

Sustained turn rates: Excellent

Instantaneous turn rates: Excellent

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So there we have it, or do we?

I asked a fighter pilot (with experience of flying most of the ‘4.5 generation’ fighter aircraft) his opinion on my top ten selection; he was keen to dismiss such a crude approach:

“It is complicated to discuss this issue in just a few words, but in order to produce a new look analysis on WVR, you should think about gyroscopic vs needle ‘driving styles’ (and the capabilities needed to play this or that, of course). So, you will pass through power-to-weight ratio, rudder surfaces, flying characteristics across different flight levels, etc. Until you get to the crucial area of energy management (that sifts the ace from the targets). It is all a question of control of the part of the egg you want to keep the fight, and well-trained pilots with good tactics will always try to keep the fight in a corner where they have some advantage. We’re not talking about an UFC card! It is team work.

The tactical egg is an imaginary bubble that represents all possible motions of an aircraft in a dogfight, showing the effects of gravity on the aircraft’s manoeuvring. Of course, new weapons (with the ability to lock-on after launch), helmet mounted sight, etc. are making the job much more complex.

Conclusion: This question requests hours of conversation and a dozen beers! ;)”

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If this article infuriated you, try our top ten BVR fighters here

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What was the best fighter of World War II? The evolution of fighters in this period was a Darwinian bloodbath that would have had Richard Dawkins slavering with excitement. Whatever we put in this list some numb-nut or another will have different ideas. Here’s our selection, the order they appear is, more or less, totally arbitrary (apart from number 1 which we firmly believe WAS the best fighter of the war). Enjoy!

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10. Steamboat Fattie: Grumman F6F ‘Hellcat’

The Hellcat was ordered as an alternative in the event of any major problems with the F4U Corsair, which was very prudent as the Corsair programme very quickly ran into very major problems indeed, and the sturdy F6F found itself the premier carrier fighter in the World’s mightiest carrier fleet. The Hellcat was big, heavy and extremely powerful, the very antithesis of its major opponent, the A6M Zero.

To fight the Zero, pilots of earlier Allied naval fighters had had to develop inventive tactics to deal with the superior Japanese aircraft. With the coming of the Hellcat, the US Navy had a fighter that was slightly faster, better armed and just manoeuvrable enough to deal with the Japanese fighter. Plus it was extremely strong and easy to fly, factors which saved many a pilot who would have been doomed in any other aircraft. The Japanese advance had been checked by the Wildcat, but it was the chunky Hellcat that allowed the US Navy to win the war in the Pacific before being replaced (in part by its old nemesis the Corsair) right at war’s end. It was exactly the right aircraft at exactly the right time.

9. ‘Dear Little Cobra’ Bell P-39 Airacobra

When the P-39 first flew it had a turbo-supercharger and was a fantastic performer at all altitudes. However the US Army Air Corps decided that no fighter would ever be required to operate at high altitude so they removed the turbo-supercharger and developed the P-39 into a low altitude fighter par excellence. Then, when it was committed to combat the same US Army Air Corps were scathing in their criticism of the P-39’s altitude performance and called it ‘especially disappointing’. A bit rich you might think seeing as they were the ones who had cacked it up in the first place.

Thus the unwanted Airacobra was sent by the thousand to the Soviet Union where it found itself in a battlefield where virtually all combat was at low level and its capabilities could be properly appreciated. It was fast (a P-39 won the first post war American air-race), it handled beautifully, it was tough, its tricycle undercarriage was perfect for rough field operations, and its firepower was nothing short of spectacular. Of the six Soviet pilots to score more than 50 kills, four flew the P-39. Its performance was superior to the German aircraft it faced (and the Soviet aircraft it complemented). The Airacobra gained more air to air kills than any other US built fighter and demonstrated the remarkable strategic wisdom of the Lend-Lease programme. Given that the Eastern Front used up 80% of the German war effort, the Kobrastochka could reasonably be considered the most important American fighter of the war in Europe.

8. Cheap and Deadly: Messerschmitt Bf 109

When studying military aircraft there is one aspect of design receives barely any attention, yet at the time is often the most important of all, namely: cost. The 109 was, arguably, the best fighter in the world from the time of its introduction until 1942(ish) despite being, according to an aircraft restoring engineer friend of mine ‘a pile of shit’ from a construction point of view. However, it was also very cheap and it was this aspect that led to it becoming the most produced fighter ever (or second most produced, depending on your criteria: see below). Even once its developmental zenith was past it represented a potent foe and was never outclassed by its opponents. The 109 scored more air-to-air kills than any other aircraft before or since and probably represents the best value for money of any fighter in history. Try saying that about the F-22.

7. The Triumph of Socialist Labour Yakovlev Yak-1 to 9

When the great Soviet ace Alexander Pokryshkin was being pressured for political reasons to convert his unit to a Soviet built aircraft rather than the Airacobra he was then flying (to great effect), one of the proffered types was the Yak-3. Pokryshkin personally detested Alexander Yakovlev and refused the offer of his latest fighter. This is unfortunate as by doing so Pokryshkin cheated himself out of flying the finest Soviet fighter of the war. The French Normandie-Niemen unit, who fought as part of the Red Army had rather a different opinion. At the end of the war they were (allegedly) offered their choice of any Allied fighter aircraft and they selected the Yak-3. Marcel Albert, their top scorer, maintained that the Yak could outclimb a Spitfire and had a higher cruising speed. The Yak-3 was one of a family of fighters that began with the Yak-1 and diversified into different lines of concurrent development. Despite their different designations there was less difference between the types than between an early and late model Messerschmitt 109 which adds weight to the suggestion that the Yak family as a whole can be considered to be the most manufactured fighter of all time as around 38000 were built in total. The Yak-3 was the lightest and smallest fighter to be used in numbers by any combatant during the war and this led to its remarkable performance on a relatively low-powered engine. Despite its daintiness the Yak-1 was on a par with contemporary Bf 109 and Fw 190 models and by war’s end was comfortably superior to both. Unburdened with the extraneous equipment deemed necessary in the West, the Yak was a very pure sort of fighting machine and probably the most pleasing aircraft from a pilot’s perspective of the war. And what other first-line 1940s fighter has had production restart for the civilian market in the 1990s or been modified into a basic trainer?

6. I could have been a contender! Fiat G.55

Just before everything went completely awry for the Italians they managed to obtain a supply of the latest DB 605 engines from Germany and built three superb fighter types. All three saw service but the best was the Fiat G.55, indeed it was so good that a team of German experts (including Adolf Galland) came to the conclusion that it was the best fighter in the Axis, possibly the world, and should be produced in vast numbers immediately for German use. Kurt Tank, designer of the Fw 190 had nothing but praise for the G.55 either and went to Turin to look at its potential for mass-production. Sadly for the Axis cold hard economic logic came into play and when it was pointed out that the, admittedly outstanding, Fiat took 15000 man hours to build against the 5000 of the still formidable Bf 109, production plans were quietly abandoned. Thus, less than 300 of the Axis’s best fighter were built and saw service only in a backwater of the conflict for a Nazi client state, whereas some 35000 109s swarmed all over Europe. However, in contrast to so many potentially terrific might-have-beens of the war, the Fiat did at least see production and served in combat, and its brilliance was demonstrated rather than merely conjectured.

5. Shatterer of Self-delusion Mitsubishi A6M Reisen ‘Zero’

Quick quiz question: What links the M16 assault rifle and the Mitsubishi Zero? That’s right: 7075 aluminium alloy. It is used for the upper and lower receivers of the M16 and it was used for most of the structure of the Zero. First produced in 1936 by Sumitomo Metals of Japan and excitingly named ‘extra super duralumin’ at the time, 7075 is an alloy of aluminium and zinc and is significantly lighter and stronger than other aluminium alloys produced until this date. That Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the A6M, had to resort to new technology at the metallurgical level demonstrates not only how challenging the Navy’s specification for their new fighter was (Nakajima didn’t even enter a tender, as they deemed it impossible) but also how cutting edge the Zero was – even at the molecular level.

At its debut the A6M was the World’s best carrier fighter. That this fact was totally ignored by the Allies, despite the aircraft being, quite openly used over China in strength, suggests that the West was all to willing to believe its propaganda on Japanese military capabilities. Propaganda that today seems, at best, laughably naive, at worst founded on an illusion fostered by dogged racism. Whatever the truth, the Zero changed all that, and with such total dominance, that it gave rise to a belief in Japanese invincibility in the minds of its opponents that would remain unchecked for the first year or two of the Pacific war. By the time American fighter design had caught up a bit, grubbily specious claims were invented to ‘explain’ the Zero’s remarkable design and performance, for example Howard Hughes claimed post-war that Mitsubishi had copied his H-1 racer, and Eugene Wilson (president of Chance-Vought) claimed they had copied Vought’s own (mediocre) V-143 fighter. It is bizarre that industrialists should resort to lying about an enemy aircraft (‘we designed it really!’) in a war already won but does demonstrate the absolute superiority that the Zero demonstrated and just how infuriating that was to the grandees of the US Military-industrial complex. Praise indeed.

4. Man Machine Interface Focke Wulf Fw 190

Quite apart from being an excellent aircraft with several radical features, the Fw 190 heralded a revolution in what today would be called ‘ergonomics’ but in 1941 was basically an unknown concept. Today the concept of HOTAS (hands on throttle and stick) is well-known and is generally considered to have been pioneered by the F-16. However the 190 sported a system that delivered the HOTAS concept some thirty years earlier. Known as the Kommandogerat, it was a remarkable device that automatically controlled fuel flow, fuel mixture, propellor pitch and ignition timing. It also activated the supercharger at the correct altitude – all the pilot had to do was move the throttle lever. His other hand was on the control column, where all the armament controls were situated, allowing his full awareness to be directed to combat. This situational awareness was further enhanced by the bubble hood (from which the view as described by a contemporary RAF report ‘is the best that has yet been seen’). When one considers that on its debut the Fw 190 was superior in every performance parameter except turn rate to its closest rival, the Spitfire V, yet also gave its pilots a tactical edge due to reduced workload, it is no wonder that its very existence sent British designers into a frenzy of activity to try and regain ascendancy. The Spitfire and other fighters later achieved parity but the Fw 190 remained a dangerous opponent, and like the F-16, saw its main role shift to a greater emphasis on the fighter bomber role. An aircraft that defined the state of the art, the Fw 190 could be the first truly modern fighter.

3. My Little Pony North American P-51 Mustang

Because everyone’s been going on about how incredibly fantastic the Mustang for years and years it tends to distract attention from what a truly remarkable aircraft it was. It is worth remembering that it shouldn’t have existed at all and came about solely because North American didn’t particularly want to build P-40s for the British. Even then, it would have remained a competent but hardly spectacular improvement on the Curtiss fighter had not some bright spark suggested fitting a Merlin engine in it (curiously this step was taken independently and near simultaneously by North American in the US and Rolls-Royce in the UK). Even then, many pilots were initially less than impressed, citing the finer flying characteristics of the Spitfire and the better manufacturing quality of the P-47. But the Mustang was at least as good a fighter as either and could fly to Berlin and back. “When I saw those Mustangs over Berlin, I knew that the war was lost” said Herman Goering and he was right. Whether or not it was the best fighter of the war, the Mustang invariably remains the standard against which other hopefuls are judged.

2. Myth-maker Supermarine Spitfire 

Today if you ask people what a ‘spitfire’ is, virtually everyone (in the UK at least) will say ‘an aeroplane’. It is extremely unlikely that anyone would say ‘a person with a fierce temper’ despite the slightly tedious accuracy they would be demonstrating if they did. This is the enduring legacy of the Spitfire, it has become the definition of the word originally used to name it: its success has changed language. There is only one other aircraft I can think of that has done this and that was Concorde (which is the French spelling of that word anyway). In a similar fashion the Spitfire also changed history, not in the conventional sense that it was important within history (though of course this is also the case), but that the legend of what happened gives it the starring role when reality saw it, (at its finest hour) performing as the supporting player. But who cares? The story is better this way, the dumpy Hurricane relegated to being championed by boring aviation geeks while the eternally handsome Spitfire swans about oozing the sex appeal that any self-respecting fighter aircraft should have. Just look at it. What were they thinking? Legend has it that RJ Mitchell said of the wings “I don’t give a bugger whether it’s elliptical or not, so long as it covers the guns”, but every other fighter covered its guns pretty effectively without cladding them in a difficult-to-manufacture but aesthetically lovely shape so I suspect he was lying. Added to this is the fact that the Spitfire is the only British fighter to be in production for the duration of the war and comfortably remained as one of the top five or so fighters worldwide throughout that time. The Spitfire may also have achieved the highest speed ever attained by a piston driven aircraft, which is pretty exciting. But the Spitfire doesn’t need facts – its claim to being a contender for the best fighter of the war has nothing to do with tawdry reality and everything to do with the myth. The Spitfire has become its own legend (If I hear the word ‘legend’ used in connection with the Spitfire again, I’m docking your pocket money, Ed.)

1. The Harbinger: Messerschmitt Me 262

There was quite a lot wrong with the Me 262 when it was committed to action but most of this was due to the exigencies of the time and had nothing to do with the astounding technological advance it represented when it was unleashed on an unsuspecting world in the spring of 1944. The obvious advantage of its new powerplant was velocity. Once airborne, no other aircraft could catch the speedy Messerschmitt, not even the Allies’ jet, the Meteor, whose performance was decidedly pedestrian by comparison. But it was not solely its jet engines that made the 262 so formidable, its firepower, epitomised for bomber destruction, was particularly heavy consisting of four 30-mm cannon firing explosive rounds at an extremely high rate. The 262 was also in some senses a remarkably practical aircraft for the not-particularly-advantageous situation into which it was introduced. It could be fuelled by a much lesser quality of fuel than its piston-engined brethren so there was more chance of being able to operate it in oil-starved Germany, furthermore a surprisingly large amount of the airframe was made of wood rather than ever more scarce aluminium and steel. Scarcity of steel was the main cause of its major problem – the engines were notoriously short-lived. The Jumo 004 jet engine was not actually a bad design but steel of sufficiently high quality was no longer available for the turbines. It is also worth remembering that these engines, as well as the airframe, were built by slaves so it is hardly surprising that build quality was not that great, in fact it’s remarkable that it worked at all. But even with these niggles the 262 reigns supreme as an incredible technological last-gasp at the end of a war already lost. Its very existence heralded a new age in fighter design of which, in 1945, it was the sole example, it was as if it had popped up from the future to astound and astonish. There is evidence that it may have even broken the sound barrier. The Messerschmitt 262 was in a class of its own. Not bad for an aircraft that was supposed to be a bomber.

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What was the most combat effective piston-engined fighter ever made? An analysis can be found here.

You may also enjoy top WVR and BVR fighters of today, an alternate history of the TSR.2, an interview with a Super Hornet pilot and a Pacifist’s Guide to Warplanes. Want something more bizarre? The Top Ten fictional aircraft is a fascinating read, as is the The Strange Story and The Planet Satellite. The Fashion Versus Aircraft Camo is also a real cracker.

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If you enjoyed this have a look at the Ten most formidable piston-engined fighters

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