Greatest Fighter Aircraft of All Time

102first_hussars · 03-06-2006, 05:38 PM

Aircraft knocked down while others tried to prove were superior to the Lightning in the interceptor role:

F-101
F-106
F-104
F-14 ... Which was a good debate - lots of good information came from that....[/quote]

I wasnt talking about intercept role, you said that the Lightning was the greatest Fighter of the Cold war not interceptor, in which I replied the F-4 is the best all around fighter.

102first_hussars · 03-06-2006, 05:42 PM

Aircraft knocked down while others tried to prove were superior to the Lightning in the interceptor role:

F-101
F-106
F-104
F-14 ... Which was a good debate - lots of good information came from that....[/quote]

I wasnt talking about intercept role, SYS said that the Lightning was the greatest Fighter of the Cold war not interceptor, in which I replied the F-4 is the best all around fighter.

syscom3 · 03-06-2006, 11:39 PM

I said the Lightning was the best cold war interceptor. In other roles, it wasnt so good.

plan_D · 03-07-2006, 12:16 AM

Yes, syscom clearly stated best Cold War interceptor.

102first_hussars · 03-07-2006, 12:23 AM

and he did too, ****, ok never mind then.

plan_D · 03-07-2006, 12:25 AM

No problem. We all make mistakes...

DerAdlerIstGelandet · 03-07-2006, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 102first_hussars

F-14 ... Which was a good debate - lots of good information came from that....

[/quote]

Nope the Lightning still has not won that either. While I agree the Lightning was one of the best of all times, and I have allways agreed with that, the F-14 was a more capable interceptor overall than the Lightning was. It had a better weapons package and avionix package and overall performance was great as well.

plan_D · 03-07-2006, 01:39 AM

But the statistics proved that, even with the Phoenix missile, the F-14 would still be beaten to target.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · 03-07-2006, 01:44 AM

Does not mean that the Lightning was more capable than the F-14. How many targets can the Lightning aquire and engage at one time? How far out can a Lightnings radar aquire its target? Overall the F-14 was more advanced, and more capable.

Am I saying the Lightning was not one of the best? No I think it is one of the best of all times the F-14 is more advanced and more capable.

plan_D · 03-07-2006, 01:49 AM

The Lightning can acquire it's target, and destroy it before the F-14 can. That's been proven , simply enough the Lightning was quick enough to be amongst the enemy before the F-14 had destroyed it's target .

And since the Lightning would be amongst it's enemy, the two missiles and two Adens were open to any target in the area. It's all well and good having fancy avionics , but the Lightning was still intercepting the target further out from base than the F-14 was.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · 03-07-2006, 01:56 AM

You are missing my point pD.

plan_D · 03-07-2006, 01:59 AM

No I'm not. You're saying that the F-14 carried a better weapons package, and superior avionics which is true. And once the F-14 was in the air, it could certainly deal with equal or more targets than the Lightning.

But , the Lightning would be destroying enemy planes before the F-14 . Which is what you want when you've got waves of nuclear bombers coming toward your shore , you want them blown out of the sky as quick as possible. And the Lightning does this .

On top of that, looking at a squadron basis ... a F-14 squadron would take longer to scramble than a Lightning squadron . Meaning, there'd be more Lightnings in the sky than F-14s .

syscom3 · 03-07-2006, 09:46 AM

Id agree the F14 has a better avionics and weapons system, but its true the Lightning can intercept the target at a farther distance. I suppose in the scheme of things, whomever can destroy their target first gets the honors.

Plus the F14's had crappy engines (except the -D model)

102first_hussars · 03-07-2006, 11:42 PM

Quote:

But , the Lightning would be destroying enemy planes before the F-14

The F-14 can be loaded with AIM 54 Phoenix missiles, meaning it can engage multiple targets at a range of 140 km away(once hit a drone at 230 km away) as apposed to the Red Tops that can only engage at 12 km, with this said the F-14 would be engaging targets way before the Lightning.

Quote:

On top of that, looking at a squadron basis ... a F-14 squadron would take longer to scramble than a Lightning squadron . Meaning, there'd be more Lightnings in the sky than F-14s

The F-14 can carry an assorted load of 8 missiles, meaning, there is no need to send dozens of Tomcats in the air, so not a whole lot of time would really be wated on organizing a group, the only time wasted would be loading the weapons and taxiing the plane, the F-14 can achieve 45,000ft a minute (some sources say 50,000ft a minute) but again with a load of 4 AIM-54 missiles that more than makes up for lost time.

the lancaster kicks ass · 03-08-2006, 01:42 AM

Quote:

The F-14 can be loaded with AIM 54 Phoenix missiles, meaning it can engage multiple targets at a range of 140 km away(once hit a drone at 230 km away) as apposed to the Red Tops that can only engage at 12 km, with this said the F-14 would be engaging targets way before the Lightning

what you think the -14 can fire 'em off as soon as his gear's up? he'll need altitude before he can even think about firing any missiles, and were the tomcats sitting on the end of the runway, fueled and armed in a constant state of alert? no, meaning extra time is needed to get them out to the runway and ready to go, in the meantime the lightning's rocketing through 40,000 and 50,000ft

Quote:

The F-14 can carry an assorted load of 8 missiles, meaning, there is no need to send dozens of Tomcats in the air

is that because, the ruskies, being so nice, would only send small formations over if they're going to bomb us? they don't want to cause the americans the inconvenience of having to send up more than one plane at a time so they'll only send four

if they launched a large scale raid you'd need entire squadrons of either aircraft, you're gonna get a lightening squadron up before a tomcat sqn, heck i'd bet good money we'd get a vulcan sqn up to counter attack the russians before you'd get a tomcat sqn up