Military Power

Please list your thoughts on the top 10 Fighters of all time. Please tell what criterion you used in the determining of your top 10.

10) F/A-22 Raptor
Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin
Power Plant: Pratt & Whitney F-119 PW-100
Top Speed: Mach 2.5
Armament: One 20mm cannon, six AMRAAM and two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles
Virtually invisible to radar and it has an impressive armament. However, it has huge costs and currently has no combat record to speak of.

9) Sopwith Camel
Manufacturer: Sopwith Aviation Company
Power Plant: Clerget rotary engine
Top Speed: 112 mph
Armament: Two Vickers .303 machine guns
Solid, if unspectacular. One of the highest kill counts in WWI

8) Me 262 Schwalbe
Manufacturer: Messerschmitt
Power Plant: Two Junkers Juno 004s
Top Speed: 540 mph
Armament: Four 30mm MK-108 cannons
The innovation of the 262 was great, but it was very difficult to make and came too late to make a noticable impact in the outcome of the war.

7) Sea Harrier FA2
Manufacturer: British Aerospace
Power Plant: Rolls Royce Pegasus mk 104 or 106 turbofan
Top Speed: 736 mph
Armament: Two 30-mm Aden cannon, plus two AMRAAM and four Sidewinder missiles, two Harpoon or Sea Eagle anti-ship missiles
With the ability to maneuver like a helicopter but with the speed of a jet it has a very impressive fear factor.

6) MiG 15
Manufacturer: Mikoyan Gurevich Design Bureau
Power Plant: Klimov VK-1 turbojet
Top Speed: 668 mph
Armament: One 37mm N-37 cannon and two 23mm NR-23 cannon
Underpowered and primitive but did the job it was designed for very well.

5) F-86 Sabre
Manufacturer: North American
Power Plant: General Electric J47 engine
Top Speed: 685 mph
Armament: Six .50-caliber machine guns and eight 5-inch rockets
Impecable Service record.

4) Supermarine Spitfire
Manufacturer: Supermarine Aviation Works
Power Plant: Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 piston engine
Top Speed: 369 mph
Armament: Eight Browning .303 machine guns; later version, four 20mm cannon
The unrivaled symbol of victory and Britain's finest hour, the Battle of Britain.

3) F-14 Tomcat
Manufacturer: Northrop Grumman
Power Plant: Two Pratt & Whitney TF-30P-414A turbofan engines with afterburners
Top Speed: Mach 1.88
Only one USN combat loss.

2) F-4 Phantom
Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglass
Power Plant: Two J79 Spey turbojet afterburning engines
Top Speed: 1,485 mph
Armament: Four AIM 7 Sparrow and four AIM 9 Sidewinder missiles.
Unrivaled service history.

1) F-15C Eagle
Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglass
Power Plant: Two Pratt & Whitney F-100-PW-100 afterburning turbofans
Top Speed: Mach 2.5
Armament: One 20-mm cannon, four AIM-7F Sparrow and four AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles

Mikoyan MiG-21

Over 10,000 built in the Soviet Union with another 2,500 unlicensed copies in China, plus others built under license in India and Czechoslovakia.

Used by at least 53 nations around the world (only the C-130 Hercules comes close) including a number of ‘Western’ nations (eg Finland).

First flown in prototype form in 1955 and still being employed (admittedly vastly upgraded and different to the original concept) more than fifty years later.

Hobilar wrote:Mikoyan MiG-21

Where would you put that one on the list? And do you agree with the above list in any way?