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Junior Member
Gentlemen,
Although, I would lean toward the F4 Phantom as well.(Still being used as Wild Weasels, I think) Lest we not forget the Navy's F-14 Tomcat.
I beleive the AF saw what the Navy had & thought: "Man I got to get me one of those"! hence was born the F-15.
The Tomcats' been doing it all for so long, it would be tough to count it out.
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Senior Member
Id have to go with Hristos....
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Senior Member
Eagle was operational about 3 years ahead of the Tomcat, and always had the engines the Tomcat should have had (as a sort of penance for screwing up the F-111B, the Navy was required to use the POS engines intended for the navalized F-111 for almost 15 years instead of the best engine available).
The Tomcat was therefore 'porked' for most of its career, and having been carefully shut out of the air combat phase of the first Gulf War, cannot really qualify. The Sukhois have no air combat record, and if the Chinese or N. Koreans ever do get frisky with theirs, the first F-22 or F-35 they encounter will quickly put them in their place.
If air to air kills are the only measuring stick, then the Me 109 is the winner by default. No other point defense fighter operated as long in a target rich environment with at least technical parity. But if overall value as a war machine is the standard, it falls way down the list, below the Mustang, the Thunderbolt, the Spitfire, and the FW 190, which all excelled at several other necessary military chores, besides being more able to go and get the enemy when he wouldn't come to them.
cheers
horseback
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Senior Member
Yup..put me down for the Bf 109 also, it was on all fronts in large numbers the German Aces high kill counts will come from(mostly) ATG on the Russian front and ATA(and inferior planes early on).
But my favourite Prop plane(fighter) would be the Hurricane(early war) Spitfire, Tempest/Typhoon, but of course theres many more.
And Jets, well i'm not a big fan, i only really like early jets but the English Electric lightning and Harrier spring to mind, also that jet that had the wings that moved back with the twin rudders, cant remember its d amn name now.