Most beautiful fighter ever built?

[Jedi Delio]

For me its any variant of the Spitfire for a prop job and F16 in jets!
as some of you have said, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder and while there have been a shedload of great looking planes out there since we stopped flapping our arms and actually took to the skies using powered flight that I also think look the bizz, these 2 are my absolute faves of all time!

if i had to break it down more, fave bomber Vulcan b2,  airliner Concorde, bizz jet HS125, Aerobat SU31, transport C130, helo Super Cobra and trainer BAe Hawk!

 

[Mike]

There can be only one!

 

[Chrisj2003]

Can't beat a jet with a pointy nose: F-104, particularly a late F-104S ASA-M in pale grey.

 

Chris

[Hook]

18 minutes ago, Mike said:

There can be only one!

Yes, and this one's it:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_M-15_Belphegor

 

 

As for most beautiful, one I haven't seen mentioned yet is the F4D Skyray. 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Mike]

15 minutes ago, Hook said:

Yes, and this one's it:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_M-15_Belphegor

 

Oh?

 

[Vince1159]

To try and answer an almost unanswerable question i'd have to go for the F-8 Crusader 'The Last of the Gunfighters'....

[TallBlondJohn]

For just how wrong anybody who thinks the F-14 is the most beautiful jet fighter ever is, watch this:

 

 

Sigh.

 

Seriously, the F-14 is top ten but never number one. On the ground it just has that straining squatting look, and not in a good way.

 

My pick:

• Pre-War: DH88 Comet
• WWII fighter: Late model Spitfire
• WWII anything else: How about a civilian (no turrets) B-17G? Naah, just kidding, its Mosquito.
• Jet Fighter: Draken. In the flesh it looks good from every angle. But usually ruined by dull paint jobs.
• Jet Bomber: XB-70
• Best ever: A-12/Concorde.

[dnl42]

DH.88 Comet, yes

Spitfire,yes; Mk.I in particular

F7F Tigercat, yes

F11F Tiger, yes

XB-70 Valkyrie, yes

 

The F-14 is perhaps the most striking and purposeful aircraft, but I wouldn't say beautiful.

[tweeky]

We have to decide on what a fighter is for starters. 

The Hawker Hunter was ground attack.

The EE Lightning was never designed to be a fighter (although it didn't do to bad at it) it was designed purely as an interceptor 

[tempestfan]

2 hours ago, Mike said:

 

Oh?

 

...but that's not real, it's a Hase Egg Plane - isn't it?

[Graham Boak]

The Hawker Hunter was certainly designed as a fighter, and became the RAF's standard fighter before being adapted (like many other fighters before it), for ground attack.

 

Interceptors not being called fighters appears to rely upon a very restricted definition of fighters, and would exclude a very large number of aircraft generally recognised as fighters, including the P-47, the p-38, and the Hawker Fury.  The F-4, of course, was designed as a ground attack aircraft (the AH) before being re-roled.

[tempestfan]

5 minutes ago, tweeky said:

 The Hawker Hunter was ground attack.

The EE Lightning was never designed to be a fighter (although it didn't do to bad at it) it was designed purely as an interceptor 

? "Ground Attack" may be true for the 9, but all earlier versions were first and foremost fighters - and couldn't carry that much scary stuff for going low, if I'm not mistaken.

The second one brings us to the philosophical question what makes a "fighter" - the F-4 also originated as a fleet defence interceptor, but could do a lot more. An interceptor would qualify as "fighter" for me as its purpose is to take on any type of enemy aircraft. You sound like you would only consider the ones that were purely made to take a dance with Charlie's fighters - "air superiority fighter"?

[tweeky]

Quote

You sound like you would only consider the ones that were purely made to take a dance with Charlie's fighters Not at all Im going on the design intent.

Quote

An interceptor would qualify as "fighter"

The Lightning`s initial war role was to intercept the incoming Russian bombers, at distance to try to protect the V-Force airfields allowing them to get airborne.  

 

Edited March 22, 2024 by tweeky

[psdavidson]

2 hours ago, Mike said:

Oh?

 

18 minutes ago, tempestfan said:

...but that's not real, it's a Hase Egg Plane - isn't it?

 

I thought it was a fancy air-con unit

[Zorglub]

My top 3
The Sukhoi 27 ( the whole family except the ugly Su-34 )
The Phantom II ( long nose )
The Rafale

[Wez]

On 21/03/2024 at 10:08, Bandsaw Steve said:

Have none of you people ever seen an F-14 Tomcat?

 

16 hours ago, hairystick said:

Correct answer.

We can close the thread now.

 

 

You're both confusing beauty with handsomeness, the F-14 is a good looking jet and indeed handsome, but beautiful it isn't, too many jutty out awkward angles and well, triangles.  It's functional but not beautiful.

 

Beautiful aircraft have gorgeous curves and everything flows smoothly and blends together without hurting the eyes, so for me, it's the Hawker Hunter, Spitfire VIII, Mirage 2000C, Hawker Seahawk (another mention for Camm's brilliance), finally for those saying Mosquito, I see your Mosquito and raise you the DH Hornet.

 

If we were choosing bombers then Canberra hands down.

 

Civilian aircraft, Lockheed Constellation (although I have to agree, the Caravelle is also a thing of beauty).

[Alan P]

Most beautiful fighter, would have to be the long nose Spitfires. Runner up the DH 103 Hornet as several have said already. Closely followed by the similarly tasked Grumman F7F Tigercat and of course the lovely Mosquito.

 

In the jet age I'd say the French have the edge with the Mirage V, F1 and the Rafale C.

 

I would say the Tomcat is a buff, manly looker, rather than a graceful beauty. I fully respect anyone's orientation and preferences, of course 😂

[Seamus]

12 minutes ago, Alan P said:

In the jet age I'd say the French have the edge with the Mirage V, F1 and the Rafale C.

I'm amazed it took this many posts for someone to suggest the Mirage F1, which is undoubtedly the correct answer to this question 😍

[Karearea]

4 minutes ago, Seamus said:

I'm amazed it took this many posts for someone to suggest the Mirage F1, which is undoubtedly the correct answer to this question 😍

The Mirage IIIC is Francoise Hardy, the F1 is me in drag singing her music out of tune. Wearing too many skirts.

[Vince1159]

3 hours ago, TallBlondJohn said:

Seriously, the F-14 is top ten but never number one. On the ground it just has that straining squatting look, and not in a good way.

That's what i meant by an unanswerable question you can't compare them,different gen and tech...

[Wez]

21 minutes ago, Karearea said:

The Mirage IIIC is Francoise Hardy, the F1 is me in drag singing her music out of tune. Wearing too many skirts.

 

Non!  Tu as tellement tort!

 

The Mirage IIIC is Francoise Hardy but the Mirage F.1 is Vanessa Paradis the Mirage 2000C is Charlotte Gainsbourg

 

 

[Alan P]

9 minutes ago, Wez said:

Mirage F.1 is Vanessa Paradis

Mais non, absoluement pas! The Mirage F.1 is Sophie Marceau!

[psdavidson]

Hilary Swank

 

(I'll give you some time ........ )

[Wez]

57 minutes ago, Alan P said:

Mais non, absoluement pas! The Mirage F.1 is Sophie Marceau!

 

Ooh! Sophie Morceau! Shame on me for forgetting her!

 

8 minutes ago, psdavidson said:

Hilary Swank

 

(I'll give you some time ........ )

 

No time needed, honestly, we're talking about Françoise Hardy, Vanessa Paradise, Sophie Morceau and you have to lower the tone!

 

Shame on you!

[tempestfan]

1 hour ago, Alan P said:

Mais non, absoluement pas! The Mirage F.1 is Sophie Marceau!

The F.1 has pretty ugly legs. Like a cowboy. I never noticed that with Sophie Marceau, but admit I did not look at her legs. The IIIC is Brigitte Bardot in her best days. The F.1 may well be Vanessa P. as I don't recall the F.1 being able to sing ("Joe le Taxi"). 

If we stay with Marcel Dassault's products, then we should logically also take a look at the Mystère IV and SMB, which arguably are the only nose intake aircraft to get it right, apart from the F8U-1 of course.