The Best Fighter pre 1970

[drgondog]

what a tough question - particularly the dogfighter as so few of the list actually fought against each other and you have to assume the envelope. In WWII if you wanted B-17's and defend against Mustangs or T-Bolts you had to be good at 22000-30,000 for the strike zone.

In VietNam I assume you want mid to 25,000 where the 105s and F4's played before rolling in or dropping level.

In Egypt/Israel most of the fights were on the deck. This is not best place for F4 to be but the F1 and Hunter and the A4 and the Mig19 would be pretty tough subsonic.. I suppose the 102/106 would be agile fighters but guns were badly overlooked by USAF

I guess I would pick the F-8 for dogfighter because of internal gun to go with the missles and much more agile than the F-4 and close to the Mirage and MiG21 but still able to accelerate.. The F4 was awesome in vertical, but...somewhat one dimensional for full range of one on one (or two or more) fights around strike force altitudes?

For interceptor? F4 or F106 because of speed, altitude load and range combined.

For dirt the A4 or AD depending on the threat environment?

The Thud was an awesome bird in a lot of ways but really designed for Nuke delivery at high speed and down low - not really a TacAir even though it did what was asked of it in the 60's.

Lot better opinions than mine on this board that flew most of the a/c - and I just don't know squat about post war Euro birds.

[Matt308]

Thanks FBJ. I had read about the -102 in SEA.

Regarding the B-1, here is what I was referring too. The B-1B is fitted with fixed geometry engine inlets that feed the engines through curved ducts incorporating stream-wise baffles, blocking radar reflections from the fans. These reduced the maximum speed at sea level to about 1.2 Mach. The earlier B-1A had external compression inlets and could reach a higher ultimate mach at altitude (about 2.2 Mach as I recall), but the B-1A also had about 10 times the radar signature without the modifications.

[fer-de-lance]

While it is fun to talk about aircraft performance, it's hard to get away from the consideration of the aircraft as part of a "weapons" or "air defense" system (SAGE ... NTDS ... radars / missiles).

For fleet air defense, it has to be the F-4J / FG. Mk1 Phantom with pulse doppler radar (AWG-10/ APG-59 in the -J and the AWG-11 in the FG. Mk1). Aircraft: unsurpassed combination of performance and BVR missiles (4-6 Sparrows)
System: supported by NTDS

Then there is the Mach 3 YF-12A with the first demonstrated "look-down, shoot-down" capability (ASG-18 / AIM-47 combo). Too bad it never reached operational service.

A Pakistani upgraded J-6 has a thrust-to-weight ratio of 0.9, three NR-30 (heavier shell and higher mv/ flatter trajectory than DEFA and ADEN) directed by a radar ranging/ lead computing gun-sight, as well as AIM-9 ... That's pretty potent! Its powered controls allow it to turn at high speeds - something the MiG-17F - itself a strong contender - couldn't do.

Nevertheless, I would go with a weird one, Harrier GR1 that entered service in 1969. Granted it was 1970 when USMC pioneered the use of VIFF (and it took a bit of modification to the nozzles to optimize) but that "threw the rule book out the window" with the extraordinary things it could do ... The GR1 had the high thrust-to-weight ratio and the ability to do VIFF plus two 30mm ADEN and a good gunsight. That makes it my choice for "pre-1970" ... (I suppose you would have to bend the rules a bit to allow the 1970 version that was really optimized - the USMC AV-8A version carrying the high performance AIM-9D Sidewinder with a cooled seeker.)

If "ground attack" is taken to mean close air support, then an Israeli modified Skyhawk would be amongst the best - all things being equal with its USN/USMC cousins, the 30mm DEFA gives it the edge.

For all weather strike, the A-6A with DIANE is hard to beat for its ability to accurately hit targets in appalling weather. F-111A with TFR would have gotten the nod but for the fact that its deficiencies were not corrected until the 1970's. For good bombing accuracy and that all important ability to out-run a lot of interceptors at low altitude, the Buccaneer deserves a mention ...

[Glider]

Hard to disagree with any of that

[SoD Stitch]

Interceptor: F-106 Delta Dart
Dogfighter: MiG-17
Attack: A-6 Intruder

As stated above, the original B-1A had variable-geometry inlets for it's F-101 engines, which allowed it to reach Mach 2.2 at altitude. However, after it's cancellation, between better Soviet interceptors (the MiG-31), and better Soviet AA missles, it became suicidal for a bomber to fly high and fast (which is why the XB-70A got cancelled). After that, the flight profile for penetration bombing changed from high & fast, to low & fast; that's why the B-52 mission profile is to get as low as possible now, instead of high and fast like during the Vietnam War.

The newer B-1B was optimized for low & fast operation, meaning there was no longer a requirement for Mach 2 capability; so the complicated variable-geometry inlet was chucked in favor of a simple, fixed-geometry inlet with RAM-coated baffling. The B-1B is said to have an RCS (Radar Cross-Section) of a bird.