1.
Northrop T-38 Talon
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The Northrop T-38 Talon is a two-seat, twin-engined supersonic jet trainer. It was the worlds first supersonic trainer and is also the most produced, the T-38 remains in service as of 2017 in several air forces. The United States Air Force operates the most T-38s, in addition to training USAF pilots, the T-38 is used by NASA. The U. S. Naval Test Pilot School is the principal US Navy operator, pilots of other NATO nations fly the T-38 in joint training programs with USAF pilots. As of 2015, the T-38 has been in service for over 50 years with its original operator, in 1952 Northrop began work on a fighter project, the Fang, with shoulder-mounted delta wing and a single engine. The proposed General Electric J79 engine, weighing two tons, meant the resulting aircraft would be large and expensive. Schmued and chief engineer Welko Gasich decided on a small twin-engine hot-rod fighter, Northrop began its N-156 project in 1954, aiming for a small supersonic fighter jet capable of operating from the US Navys escort carriers. In the mid-1950s the USAF issued a General Operating Requirement for a supersonic trainer, Northrop officials decided to adapt the N-156 to this competition. The only other candidate was the version of the North American F-100 Super Sabre. However, Northrop officials convincingly presented life-cycle cost comparisons which could not be ignored, the first flew on 10 March 1959. The type was adopted and the first production examples were delivered in 1961, officially entering service on 17 March that year. When production ended in 1972,1,187 T-38s had been built, since its introduction, it is estimated that some 50,000 military pilots have trained on this aircraft. The USAF remains one of the few armed flying forces using dedicated supersonic final trainers, as most, such as the US Navy, the T-38 is of conventional configuration, with a small, low, long-chord wing, a single vertical stabilizer, and tricycle undercarriage. The aircraft seats a student pilot and instructor in tandem, and has intakes for its two engines at the wing roots. Its nimble performance has earned it the nickname white rocket, in 1962 the T-38 set absolute time-to-climb records for 3,000,6,000,9,000 and 12,000 meters, beating the records for those altitudes set by the F-104 in December 1958. The wings of both the T-38 and the F-5 family use conventional skin over spar-rib structure, in 2015,504 T-38s were still operational with the USAF, with many more in operation around the world. Most of the USAF variant aircraft have been converted to the T-38C through an upgrade program. Improvements include the addition of a HUD, GPS, INS, most jets have also received PMP
2.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
3.
Eurofighter Typhoon
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The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole fighter. NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency manages the project and is the prime customer, the aircrafts development effectively began in 1983 with the Future European Fighter Aircraft programme, a multinational collaboration among the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Disagreements over design authority and operational requirements led France to leave the consortium to develop the Dassault Rafale independently. A technology demonstration aircraft, the British Aerospace EAP, first took flight on 6 August 1986, the aircrafts name, Typhoon, was adopted in September 1998, the first production contracts were also signed that year. The Royal Air Force of Oman and the Kuwait Air Force are export customers, the Eurofighter Typhoon is a highly agile aircraft, designed to be a supremely effective dogfighter in combat. The Typhoon had its debut during the 2011 military intervention in Libya with the Royal Air Force. The type has also taken responsibility for air-defence duties for the majority of customer nations. The UK had identified a requirement for a new fighter as early as 1971, the AST403 specification, issued by the Air staff in 1972, led to the P.96 conventional tailed design presented in the late 1970s. The P.96 design had potential for growth. However, the simultaneous West German requirement for a new fighter had led by 1979 to the development of the TKF-90 concept and this was a cranked delta wing design with forward close-coupled-canard controls and artificial stability. In 1979, Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm and British Aerospace presented a proposal to their respective governments for the ECF. In October 1979 Dassault joined the ECF team for a tri-national study and it was at this stage of development the Eurofighter name was first attached to the aircraft. The development of different national prototypes continued, the UK produced two designs, the P.106 was a single-engined lightweight fighter, superficially resembling the JAS39 Gripen, the P.110 was a twin-engined fighter. The RAF rejected the P.106 concept on the grounds it had half the effectiveness of the aircraft at two-thirds of the cost. West Germany continued to refine the TKF-90 concept, consequently, the Panavia partners launched the Agile Combat Aircraft programme in April 1982. The ACA was very similar to the BAe P.110, having a delta wing, canards. One major external difference was the replacement of the engine intakes with a chin intake. The ACA was to be powered by a version of the RB199
4.
French Air Force
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The French Air Force is the air force of the French Armed Forces. It was formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, an arm of the French Army. The number of aircraft in service with the French Air Force varies depending on source, the French Air Force has 233 combat aircraft in service, with the majority being 125 Dassault Mirage 2000 and 108 Dassault Rafale. As of early 2016, the French Air Force employs a total of 42,607 regular personnel, the reserve element of the air force consisted of 5,187 personnel of the Operational Reserve. The Minister of Defence is responsible for execution of military policy and he is advised by the Chief of Staff of the Armies in regard to the use of forces and the control of military operations. The Chief of Staff of the French Air Force determines the air force doctrines and advises the CEMA how to deploy French air assets and he is responsible for the preparation and logistic support of the air force. The French took active interest in developing the air force from 1909 and had the first World War I fighter pilots, in the post–World War II era, the French made a successful effort to develop a domestic aircraft industry. Dassault Aviation led the way mainly with delta-wing designs, which formed the basis for the Mirage series of jet fighters. The Mirage demonstrated its abilities in the Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, the Falklands War, the French Air Force participated in several protracted colonial wars in Africa and French Indochina after the Second World War, and continues to employ its air power in Africa. The Military Air Transport Command had previously formed in February 1962 from the Groupement dUnités Aériennes Spécialisées. The Dassault Mirage IV, the principal French strategic bomber, was designed to strike Soviet positions as part of the French nuclear triad, also created in 1964 was the Escadron des Fusiliers Commandos de lAir, seemingly grouping all FCA units. CFAS had two squadrons of S-3 IRBMs at the Plateau dAlbion, six squadrons of Mirage IVAs, coTAM counted 28 squadrons, of which ten were fixed-wing transport squadrons, and the remainder helicopter and liaison squadrons, at least five of which were overseas. CAFDA numbered 14 squadrons mostly flying the Mirage F. 1C, two other commands had flying units, the Air Force Schools Command, and the Air Force Transmissions Command, with four squadrons and three trials units. In 1994 the Commandement des Fusiliers Commandos de lAir was established, the French Air Force is expanding and replacing aircraft inventory. After an absence lasting several decades, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that France will rejoin the NATO integrated command, from 2008-2010 the Air Force underwent an organisational streamlining process. This project was called Air 2010, which was the year of the deadline for all transitions, the main targets of this project were to simplify the command structure, to regroup all military and civil air force functions and to rationalise and optimise all air force units. Five major commands, were formed, instead of the former 13, CDAOA CFA CSFA DRHAA SAGF The last remaining squadron of Dassault Mirage F1s were retired in July 2014 and replaced by the Rafale. The Chief of Staff of the French Air Force determines air force doctrine and he is responsible for the preparation and logistic support of the air force
5.
Dassault Rafale
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The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. The Rafale is referred to as an aircraft by Dassault. In the late 1970s, the French Air Force and Navy were seeking to replace, in order to reduce development costs and boost prospective sales, France entered into an arrangement with four other European nations to produce an agile multi-purpose fighter. Subsequent disagreements over workshare and differing requirements led to Frances pursuit of its own development program, Dassault built a technology demonstrator which first flew in July 1986 as part of an eight-year flight-test programme, paving the way for the go-ahead of the project. Originally scheduled to service in 1996, the Rafale suffered significant delays due to post-Cold War budget cuts. The aircraft is available in three variants, Rafale C single-seat land-based version, Rafale B twin-seat land-based version. Introduced in 2001, the Rafale is being produced for both the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations in the French Navy. The Rafale has been marketed for export to countries, and it has been selected for purchase by the Indian Air Force, the Egyptian Air Force. The Rafale has been used in combat over Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq, several upgrades to the weapons and avionics of the Rafale are planned to be introduced by 2018. In the mid-1970s, both the French Air Force and Navy had requirements for a new generation of fighters to replace those in or about to enter service, because their requirements were similar, and to reduce cost, both departments issued a common request for proposal. In 1975, the French Ministry of Aviation initiated studies for a new aircraft to complement the upcoming and smaller Dassault Mirage 2000, in 1979, the French company Dassault joined the MBB/BAe European Collaborative Fighter project which was renamed the European Combat Aircraft. A number of factors led to the split between France and the other four countries. Around 1984 France reiterated its requirement for a version and demanded a leading role. It also insisted on a fighter that was lighter than the design favoured by the other four nations. West Germany, the UK and Italy opted out and established a new EFA programme. In Turin on 2 August 1985, West Germany, the UK and Italy agreed to go ahead with the Eurofighter, despite pressure from France, Spain rejoined the Eurofighter project in early September 1985. The four-nation project eventually resulted in the development of the Eurofighter Typhoon, in France, the government proceeded with its own programme. The French Ministry of Defence required an aircraft capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground, all-day, during October–December 1978, prior to Frances joining of the ECA, Dassault received contracts for the development of project ACT92
6.
Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor
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The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation, single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force. The aircraft was variously designated F-22 and F/A-22 before it entered service in December 2005 as the F-22A. The Raptors combination of stealth, aerodynamic performance, and situational awareness gives the aircraft unprecedented air combat capabilities, a final procurement tally of 187 operational production aircraft was established in 2009, and the last F-22 was delivered to the USAF in 2012. In 1981 the U. S. Air Force developed a requirement for an Advanced Tactical Fighter as a new air superiority fighter to replace the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. Code named Senior Sky, this program was influenced by the emerging threats, including development and proliferation of Soviet Su-27 Flanker-. Each design team produced two prototype air vehicles, one for each of the two engine options, the Lockheed-led team employed thrust vectoring nozzles on YF-22 for enhanced maneuverability in dogfights. The ATFs increasing weight and cost drove out certain requirements during development, side-looking radars were deleted, and the dedicated infra-red search and track system was downgraded from multi-color to single color and then deleted as well. However, space and cooling provisions were retained to allow for future addition of these components, the ejection seat requirement was downgraded from a fresh design to the existing McDonnell Douglas ACES II. After the flight test demonstration and validation of the prototypes, on 23 April 1991, the YF-23 design was considered stealthier and faster, while the YF-22 was more maneuverable. The aviation press speculated that the YF-22 was also adaptable to the U. S. Navys Navalized Advanced Tactical Fighter, but by 1992. F-22 production was split up over many subcontractors across 46 states to increase Congressional support, though this production split may have contributed to increased costs, many capabilities were deferred to post-service upgrades, reducing the initial cost but increasing total program cost. Production supported over 1,000 subcontractors and suppliers and up to 95,000 jobs, the F-22 had several design changes from the YF-22. The swept-back angle of the edge was decreased from 48° to 42°, while the vertical stabilizers were shifted rearward. To improve pilot visibility, the canopy was moved forward 7 inches, the shapes of the wing and stabilator trailing edges were refined to improve aerodynamics, strength, and stealth characteristics. Increasing weight during development caused slight reductions in range and aerodynamic performance, the first F-22, an engineering and manufacturing development aircraft named Raptor 4001, was unveiled at Marietta, Georgia, on 9 April 1997, and first flew on 7 September 1997. In 2006, the Raptors development team, composed of over 1,000 contractors, the F-22 was in production for 15 years, at a rate of roughly two per month during peak production. The USAF originally envisioned ordering 750 ATFs at a cost of $26.2 billion, the 1990 Major Aircraft Review led by Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney reduced this to 648 aircraft beginning in 1996. By 1997, funding instability had further cut the total to 339, in 2004, the Department of Defense further reduced this to 183 operational aircraft, despite the USAFs preference for 381
7.
Fixed-wing aircraft
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A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft, such as an aeroplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the vehicles forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft, in which the form a rotor mounted on a spinning shaft. Glider fixed-wing aircraft, including free-flying gliders of various kinds and tethered kites, powered fixed-wing aircraft that gain forward thrust from an engine include powered paragliders, powered hang gliders and some ground effect vehicles. The wings of an aircraft are not necessarily rigid, kites, hang-gliders, variable-sweep wing aircraft. Most fixed-wing aircraft are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, kites were used approximately 2,800 years ago in China, where materials ideal for kite building were readily available. Some authors hold that leaf kites were being flown much earlier in what is now Indonesia, by at least 549 AD paper kites were being flown, as it was recorded in that year a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission. Ancient and medieval Chinese sources list other uses of kites for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signaling, and communication for military operations. Stories of kites were brought to Europe by Marco Polo towards the end of the 13th century, although they were initially regarded as mere curiosities, by the 18th and 19th centuries kites were being used as vehicles for scientific research. This machine may have been suspended for its flight, some of the earliest recorded attempts with gliders were those by the 9th-century poet Abbas Ibn Firnas and the 11th-century monk Eilmer of Malmesbury, both experiments injured their pilots. In 1799, Sir George Cayley set forth the concept of the aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion. Cayley was building and flying models of fixed-wing aircraft as early as 1803, in 1856, Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris made the first powered flight, by having his glider LAlbatros artificiel pulled by a horse on a beach. In 1884, the American John J. Montgomery made controlled flights in a glider as a part of a series of gliders built between 1883-1886, other aviators who made similar flights at that time were Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher, and Octave Chanute. In the 1890s, Lawrence Hargrave conducted research on wing structures and his box kite designs were widely adopted. Although he also developed a type of aircraft engine, he did not create. Sir Hiram Maxim built a craft that weighed 3.5 tons, in 1894, his machine was tested with overhead rails to prevent it from rising. The test showed that it had enough lift to take off, the craft was uncontrollable, which Maxim, it is presumed, realized, because he subsequently abandoned work on it. By 1905, the Wright Flyer III was capable of fully controllable, stable flight for substantial periods, the flight was certified by the FAI. This was the first controlled flight, to be officially recognised, the Bleriot VIII design of 1908 was an early aircraft design that had the modern monoplane tractor configuration
8.
Aircraft
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An aircraft is a machine that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the lift of an airfoil. The human activity that surrounds aircraft is called aviation, crewed aircraft are flown by an onboard pilot, but unmanned aerial vehicles may be remotely controlled or self-controlled by onboard computers. Aircraft may be classified by different criteria, such as type, aircraft propulsion, usage. Each of the two World Wars led to technical advances. Consequently, the history of aircraft can be divided into five eras, Pioneers of flight, first World War,1914 to 1918. Aviation between the World Wars,1918 to 1939, Second World War,1939 to 1945. Postwar era, also called the jet age,1945 to the present day, aerostats use buoyancy to float in the air in much the same way that ships float on the water. They are characterized by one or more large gasbags or canopies, filled with a relatively low-density gas such as helium, hydrogen, or hot air, which is less dense than the surrounding air. When the weight of this is added to the weight of the aircraft structure, a balloon was originally any aerostat, while the term airship was used for large, powered aircraft designs – usually fixed-wing. In 1919 Frederick Handley Page was reported as referring to ships of the air, in the 1930s, large intercontinental flying boats were also sometimes referred to as ships of the air or flying-ships. – though none had yet been built, the advent of powered balloons, called dirigible balloons, and later of rigid hulls allowing a great increase in size, began to change the way these words were used. Huge powered aerostats, characterized by an outer framework and separate aerodynamic skin surrounding the gas bags, were produced. There were still no fixed-wing aircraft or non-rigid balloons large enough to be called airships, then several accidents, such as the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, led to the demise of these airships. Nowadays a balloon is an aerostat and an airship is a powered one. A powered, steerable aerostat is called a dirigible, sometimes this term is applied only to non-rigid balloons, and sometimes dirigible balloon is regarded as the definition of an airship. Non-rigid dirigibles are characterized by a moderately aerodynamic gasbag with stabilizing fins at the back and these soon became known as blimps. During the Second World War, this shape was adopted for tethered balloons, in windy weather
9.
Military
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The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their body and to defend that body. Armed force is the use of armed forces to achieve political objectives, the study of the use of armed forces is called military science. Broadly speaking, this involves considering offense and defense at three levels, strategy, operational art, and tactics, all three levels study the application of the use of force in order to achieve a desired objective. In most countries the basis of the forces is the military. However, armed forces can include other paramilitary structures, the obvious benefit to a country in maintaining armed forces is in providing protection from foreign threats and from internal conflict. In recent decades armed forces personnel have also used as emergency civil support roles in post-disaster situations. On the other hand, they may harm a society by engaging in counter-productive warfare. Expenditure on science and technology to develop weapons and systems sometimes produces side benefits, although some claim that greater benefits could come from targeting the money directly
10.
Heinkel He 178
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The Heinkel He 178 was the worlds first aircraft to fly under turbojet power, and the first practical jet aircraft. It was a venture by the German Heinkel company in accordance with director Ernst Heinkels emphasis on developing technology for high-speed flight. It first flew on 27 August 1939, piloted by Erich Warsitz and this flight had been preceded by a short hop three days earlier. In 1936, an engineer named Hans von Ohain had taken out a patent on using the exhaust from a gas turbine as a means of propulsion. He presented his idea to Ernst Heinkel, who agreed to develop the concept. Von Ohain successfully demonstrated his first engine, the Heinkel HeS1 in 1937, the He 178 was designed around von Ohains third engine design, the HeS3, which burned diesel fuel. The result was an aircraft with a metal fuselage of conventional configuration and construction. The jet intake was in the nose, and the aircraft was fitted with tailwheel undercarriage, the main landing gear was intended to be retractable, but remained fixed in down position throughout the flight trials. The high-mounted wooden wings had the characteristic Günter brothers elliptical trailing edge, photos showing a straight wing were of the second prototype He 178 V2, which never flew under power. The aircraft made its flight on 27 August 1939, only days before Germany started World War II by invading Poland. The test pilot was Erich Warsitz, who had flown the worlds first rocket powered airplane. Heinkel had developed the engine and the testbed aircraft, the Heinkel He 178 V1. Ernst Udet and Erhard Milch, Minister of Aircraft Production and Supply watched the aircraft perform, while a technical success, speeds were limited to 598 kilometres per hour even when fitted with more powerful HeS61, 300lb thrust engines and combat endurance was only 10 minutes. Undeterred, Heinkel decided to embark on the development of a jet fighter. The sole He 178 V1 airframe was placed on display at the Berlin Aviation Museum, Ernst Heinkel was disappointed by the lack of official interest in his private-venture jet. In his autobiography, he attributes this to the failure of the leaders of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium to understand the advantages of jet propulsion, in fact, the Reich Air Ministry was already developing its own jets, a fact unknown to Heinkel. In 1939, BMW and Junkers were working on official turbojet engines for the German military and these were axial-flow turbojets, which promised much less drag than the centrifugal-flow turbojets like those being developed at Heinkel and by Frank Whittle in England. But the development of jet powered single-seaters was ordered to continue and this seems to have marked a turning point for jet aircraft, Hitler deciding that the most promising jet fighter aircraft be re-purposed as a blitz bomber
11.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23
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The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is considered to belong to the Soviet third-generation jet fighter category and it was the first attempt by the Soviet Union to design look-down/shoot-down radar and one of the first to be armed with beyond visual range missiles. Production started in 1970 and reached large numbers with over 5,000 aircraft built, today the MiG-23 remains in limited service with some export customers. The basic design was used as the basis for the Mikoyan MiG-27. Among many minor changes, the MiG-27 replaced the MiG-23s nose-mounted radar system with a panel holding a laser designator. The MiG-23s predecessor, the MiG-21, was fast and agile, but limited in its capabilities by its primitive radar, short range. Work began on a replacement for the MiG-21 in the early 1960s, the new aircraft was required to have better performance and range than the MiG-21, while carrying more capable avionics and weapons including beyond-visual-range missiles. A major design consideration was take-off and landing performance, existing Soviet fast jets required very long runways which, combined with their limited range, restricted their tactical usefulness. The VVS demanded the new aircraft have a much shorter take-off run, low-level speed and handling was also to be improved over the MiG-21. Manoeuvrability was not an urgent requirement and this first flew on 3 April 1967, but it soon became apparent that this configuration was unsatisfactory, as the lift jets became useless dead weight once airborne. Work on the strand of development was carried out in parallel by a team led by A. A Andreyev, with MiG directed to build a variable-geometry prototype. The 23-11 featured variable-geometry wings which could be set to angles of 16,45 and 72 degrees, the maiden flight of 23–11 took place on 10 June 1967, flown by the famous MiG test pilot Alexander Vasilevich Fedotov. Six more flight prototypes and two static-test prototypes were prepared for flight and system testing. All featured the Tumansky R-27-300 turbojet engine with a thrust of 7850 kp, the order to start series production of the MiG-23 was given in December 1967. The first production MiG-23S took to the air on 21 May 1969, the General Dynamics F-111 and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II were the main Western influences on the MiG-23. The Soviets, however, wanted a lighter, single-engined fighter to maximize agility. Both the F-111 and the MiG-23 were designed as fighters, but the weight and inherent stability of the F-111 turned it into a long-range interdictor. The MiG-23s designers kept the MiG-23 light and agile enough to dogfight with enemy fighters, the MiG-23s armament evolved as the types avionics were upgraded and new variants were deployed
12.
Attack aircraft
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This class of aircraft is designed mostly for close air support and naval air-to-surface missions, overlapping the tactical bomber mission. Designs dedicated to non-naval roles are often known as ground-attack aircraft, Strike fighters, which have effectively replaced the fighter-bomber and light bomber concepts, also differ little from the broad concept of an attack aircraft. The dedicated attack aircraft as a separate class existed primarily during, the precise implementation varied from country to country, and was handled by a wide variety of designs. In the US and UK, attack aircraft were based on light bombers, sometimes carrying heavier forward-firing weapons like the B-25G. In Germany and USSR, where they were known as schlachtflugzeug or sturmovik, in the late-war era, the fighter-bomber began to take over many attack roles, a change that continued in the post-war era. Jet powered examples were relatively rare, but not unknown, like the Blackburn Buccaneer, the US Navy continued to introduce new aircraft in their A-series, but these were purely light and medium bombers. Since the 1960s, only two dedicated attack aircraft designs have been introduced, the US A-10 Thunderbolt II and Soviet Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot. One oddity belonging to class is the AC-130, which features as its primary armament high-caliber artillery guns adapted for aircraft use. A variety of attack aircraft exist, usually based on adapted trainers or other light fixed-wing aircraft. Presently, U. S. attack aircraft are identified by the prefix A-, as in A-6 Intruder, however, until the end of World War II the A- designation was shared between attack planes and light bombers for the Army aircraft. The US Navy used a separate system and at the time preferred to call similar aircraft scout bombers or torpedo bombers. For example, Douglas SBD Dauntless scout bomber was designated A-24 when used by the USAAF. It was not until 1946, when the US Navy and US Marine Corps started using the attack designation, as with many aircraft classifications, the definition of attack aircraft is somewhat vague and has tended to change over time. Current U. S. military doctrine defines it as an aircraft which most likely performs an attack mission, Attack mission means, in turn, specifically tactical air-to-ground action—in other words, neither air-to-air action nor strategic bombing is considered an attack mission. In United States Navy vocabulary, the designation for the same activity is a strike mission. Attack missions are divided into two categories, air interdiction and close air support. In the last several decades, the rise of the ubiquitous multi-role fighter has created confusion about the difference between attack and fighter aircraft. According to the current U. S. designation system, an aircraft is designed primarily for air-to-surface
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