Now when it comes to jet fighters the Me 262 simply because it was one of the first but id like to know which one you fancy
What else?
Couple of favourites:
Hawker Hunter - absolutely beautiful and apparently a joy to fly.
English Electric Lightning - not enough fuel to do anything useful, but stunning performance (supercruise in 1954!) and the angriest looking aircraft ever to fly.
The Harrier because it was the first mass produced VTOL jet ever.
I like this, one of the fastest fighter with highspeed about 3000km/h.
Look at the huge engines
But what is it?
MiG-25P
I’m not all that big a fan of the MiG-25 myself - too much brute force and tool little elegance. Don’t get me wrong, brute force is good, but elegance is better. The Lightning is a good example - a total brute force fighter, but with a good deal of design work put in (e.g. stacking the engines vertically to reduce frontal area) to make things more elegant.
If you like elegance, take a MiG-29OVT or Su-37 or 47, they are manoeuvreble as hell and look cool.
Elegance is a specific engineering term - meaning to use a clever idea instead of brute force. The original Su-27 and the Su-34 are elegant, the -37 and -47 are not.
I like the su27/34 as well. I also like the ho229.
From modern jets my favourites are:
F-15E Strike Eagle, it looks as elegant as it looks mean:
and
F-4 Phantom II, strictly classical
F-86 Hands down…classic lines.
I prefer the classic “C” version of the F-15C Eagle…
We have the last ME 262 completely restored and flown Trainer in the world only an hour south of us. It is at a small museum on the edge of the Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Pennsylvania,USA.
I was able to get these photos of it the last time we visited.
It was completely disassembled and blue prints made to build 5 reproductions.
Then it was beautifully restored and flown. If you go to this site you can see the Restored ME 262 Trainer fly and one of the Reproductions.
Each sells for $ONE MILLION dollars each.
You actually like the looks of the Phantom? That’s just wrong…
I do actually, it was THE state-of-the-art jet plane of my childhood and to us it’s the way a jet fighter should like.
<shudders> Just because it’s a fantastic performer does NOT mean you have to like what it looks like!
…says someone to come from a nation that designed the Harrier and the Vulcan;)
I make no apologies for the Harrier (and indeed the Supermarine Swift). The Vulcan isn’t all that bad, although personally I much prefer the HP Victor.