49 Fun Facts About Fighter Jet

Which aircraft was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter?

Messerschmitt Me 262: about 120 mph faster than a P-51 Mustang, it could join or leave a fight at will, but its jet engines took so long to perfect that it reached combat only in 1944.

Which was the only Allied jet aircraft to see combat in the Second World War?

Gloster Meteor pilots first went into action in July 1944, hunting V-1 flying bombs over Kent, and shot down their first two that August.

The F-86 Sabre fought some of the first jet-versus-jet battles against the MiG-15 during which war?

The Korean War's jet duels raged over 'MiG Alley', near the Yalu River; the Sabre, America's first swept-wing fighter, drew on German wartime research into swept wings.

The 'MiG' in MiG-15 is short for what?

Its two designers' surnames: Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich founded the bureau in 1939, and the small 'i' is simply the Russian word for 'and'.

Which Soviet fighter, NATO codename Fishbed, is the most-produced supersonic jet in history?

MiG-21: cheap to buy and simple to keep flying, it served with about 60 countries, and its triangular outline earned it the nickname 'Balalaika' after the Russian instrument.

Which fighter has a combat record of more than 100 air-to-air kills without a single loss in air combat?

F-15 Eagle: in 1983 an Israeli pilot even landed one safely after a mid-air collision tore off almost its entire right wing.

By what nickname do pilots commonly know the F-16 Fighting Falcon?

Viper is said to have stuck because the jet reminded pilots of the snake and of the Colonial Viper starfighters in Battlestar Galactica, on television as the F-16 entered service.

The F-16 was the first production fighter deliberately designed to be what?

Slightly aerodynamically unstable by design, the F-16 turns more readily; a computer steadies it through fly-by-wire controls, which earned it the early nickname 'the electric jet'.

What distinctive wing feature does the F-14 Tomcat have?

Variable-sweep wings swing back for high-speed intercepts and forward for slow flight, and on the Tomcat a computer moved them automatically as the speed changed.

Which country is the only one besides the United States ever to fly the F-14 Tomcat?

Iran received its Tomcats under the Shah from 1976; when the US Navy retired its own, it had them shredded so that no spare parts could reach Tehran.

The F-22's 'supercruise' is sustained supersonic flight without using what?

Afterburners gulp fuel, so supercruise lets the jet hold more than Mach 1.5 for far longer; only 195 were built, well short of the 750 once planned.

Which of the F-35's three variants is the short take-off and vertical-landing version?

F-35B: a lift fan behind the cockpit and an engine nozzle that swivels downward let it hover; the US Marines declared it ready for combat in 2015, before either of its siblings.

The custom-fitted helmet worn by F-35 pilots famously lets them do what?

Look straight through the airframe: six infrared cameras around the jet feed the visor, so a pilot who glances down sees the ground below, not the cockpit floor.

Which was the first fifth-generation fighter to enter service, in December 2005?

F-22 Raptor: it hides its weapons in internal bays to keep its radar signature small, and Congress has barred its sale abroad since the late 1990s, so no ally has ever flown it.

China's Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter is known by which nickname?

Mighty Dragon: the J-20 made its first flight in January 2011, during a visit to China by US defence secretary Robert Gates, and entered service six years later.

What is the NATO reporting name of Russia's Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter?

Felon follows NATO's rule that fighters get reporting names starting with F, like the Flanker and Fulcrum that the Su-57 was built to succeed.

In 1976 Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko defected by flying his MiG-25 to an airport in which country?

Japan let American experts take the jet apart before shipping it back to the Soviet Union in pieces; they found that its electronics still relied on vacuum tubes.

Which four nations manage the Eurofighter Typhoon programme?

UK, Germany, Italy and Spain carried on after France, a partner in the 1983 project, pulled out in 1985 to build its own fighter, the Rafale.

Sweden's Saab JAS 39 fighter is named after which mythical creature?

Griffin is 'Gripen' in Swedish; the name was chosen through a public competition and matches the heraldic beast on Saab's logo.

Which was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in level flight, in October 1958?

Dassault Mirage III: its tailless delta wing was built for speed, but with no tailplane it could not use normal flaps, so it needed a long take-off run and landed fast.

Which company marketed the F-104 Starfighter with the slogan 'the missile with a man in it'?

Lockheed sold the Starfighter hard: it later emerged that the company had bribed officials abroad to win orders, while the jet's crash record earned it the nickname 'Widowmaker'.

The British-designed Harrier became famous for which capability?

Vertical and short take-off came from a single Pegasus engine whose swivelling nozzles could point the thrust downward, letting a Harrier hover like a helicopter.

The Panavia Tornado was jointly developed by Italy, Germany and which other nation?

Britain, West Germany and Italy built the Tornado through the joint company Panavia; the Netherlands also took part in the early planning but dropped out before the design was settled.

Despite the 'Stealth Fighter' label, the F-117 Nighthawk was designed for what role?

Ground attack was its whole job: the F-117 carried laser-guided bombs in an internal bay, and one was shot down by a Yugoslav missile battery in March 1999.

What is the British term for a jet engine afterburner?

Reheat says what it does: fuel sprayed into the jet pipe behind the turbine burns in the hot exhaust, heating it again for a burst of extra thrust at a heavy cost in fuel.

Which company's ejection seats have saved more than 7,000 aircrew lives since the 1940s?

Martin-Baker turned to escape systems after co-founder Valentine Baker died test-flying one of its fighters in 1942; everyone its seats save can join the firm's Ejection Tie Club.

The first aircraft with an ejection seat, in 1940, was a prototype jet from which manufacturer?

Heinkel's He 280 had a seat fired by compressed air, and test pilot Helmut Schenk used it in January 1942 to make the first emergency ejection after his controls iced up.

A G-suit prevents blackouts by stopping blood from pooling where?

In the lower body: bladders in the suit's trousers inflate under high g and squeeze the legs and abdomen, so blood stays up near the brain and the pilot stays conscious.

How many aerial victories does a pilot usually need to be called an ace?

Five became the benchmark in 1915, when French newspapers hailed Adolphe Pégoud as 'l'As', the ace, after he had brought down five German aircraft.

How many aerial victories was the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, officially credited with?

80 victories made him the war's top ace, yet only 19 of them came in the red triplane he is always pictured in.

Erich Hartmann, history's top ace, scored his 352 victories in which German fighter?

Bf 109: forced down in one behind Soviet lines in August 1943, Hartmann was captured, but he faked an injury, broke away from his guards and got back to German lines.

America's top-scoring ace of World War II, Richard Bong, got all 40 of his kills flying which aircraft?

P-38: Bong flew the twin-engined Lightning over the South-West Pacific, survived the fighting, and was killed test-flying a P-80 jet on the day the Hiroshima bomb was dropped.

The first practical gear for firing a machine gun through a propeller entered service in 1915 on which German aircraft?

Fokker Eindecker pilots could aim their gun simply by pointing the aircraft, and the months of Allied losses that followed became known as the 'Fokker Scourge'.

Pilots of which British WWI biplane were credited with 1,294 kills, more than any other Allied fighter?

Sopwith Camel: the hump over its twin machine guns gave it the name, and the pull of its rotary engine made it superbly nimble in a fight but hard to fly.

The Spitfire's famous wing had what shape?

Elliptical wings, shaped by aerodynamicist Beverley Shenstone, let the Spitfire's wing be very thin yet still hold its guns and wheels; it stayed in production throughout the war.

The definitive P-51D Mustang was powered by a licence-built version of which British engine?

Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, built under licence by Packard, cured the Mustang's weak high-altitude performance and turned it into an escort that could go with the bombers to Berlin.

The Japanese A6M fighter got its 'Zero' name from what?

The last digit of imperial year 2600, which was 1940 in the West, gave the navy's new 'Type 0' fighter its name; the official Allied code name for it was 'Zeke'.

The Navy's Fighter Weapons School, better known as TOPGUN, was founded in 1969 at which air station?

NAS Miramar, near San Diego, housed the school from 1969, at first in a trailer its founders had taken without permission; in 1996 it moved to NAS Fallon in Nevada.

Which fighter does Maverick fly in the 1986 film Top Gun?

F-14A: the Navy lent real Tomcats for the flying scenes, and Paramount paid up to $7,800 an hour for fuel and running costs whenever a jet flew just for the cameras.

In Top Gun: Maverick, what is the name of the hypersonic test aircraft Maverick pushes past Mach 10?

Darkstar was designed with engineers from the real Skunk Works, the secretive team behind the SR-71 Blackbird, and a full-scale mock-up was built for filming.

Which aircraft did the Blue Angels, formed in 1946, switch to in 2021?

F/A-18E/F Super Hornet: Boeing converted eleven Navy fleet jets for the team, which had flown older Hornets since 1986 and made the switch for its 75th anniversary season.

Which American pilot first flew faster than sound, in the rocket-powered Bell X-1 in October 1947?

Chuck Yeager was a wartime fighter pilot who had been shot down over France in 1944 and slipped away to Spain with the Resistance's help before returning to fly again.

On 8 November 1950, a pilot of which US Air Force jet claimed America's first jet-versus-jet kill, a MiG-15?

F-80 Shooting Star pilot Russell Brown reported downing the MiG, but Soviet records say no MiG was lost that day and that its pilot dived away and survived.

Which British jet engine did the UK transfer to the Soviets, who used it in the MiG-15?

Rolls-Royce Nene engines were sold to Moscow by the post-war Labour government as a goodwill gesture, on condition they not be put to military use; Soviet engineers promptly copied them.

Which Grumman jet, the company's first, was the US Navy's most widely used jet fighter in combat in the early 1950s?

F9F Panther pilots included future astronaut Neil Armstrong, who had to eject from one in 1951 after losing part of a wing on a low bombing run.

Which colonel devised both the 'OODA loop' and energy–manoeuvrability theory?

John Boyd was known as 'Forty Second Boyd' for his standing claim that he could beat any pilot in mock combat within 40 seconds; he built the theory with mathematician Thomas Christie.

The first shots between aircraft were probably fired in August 1914 by an Austro-Hungarian airman at a pilot from which country?

Serbia's Miodrag Tomić was on a reconnaissance flight when the enemy airman opened fire with a handgun; he got away unharmed, and both sides were soon arming their aircraft.

Which World War I 'pusher' scout mounted its propeller behind the pilot so a gun could fire forward?

Airco DH.2 pilots sat ahead of the engine with a clear field of fire, giving the Royal Flying Corps a forward-firing fighter before it had a reliable synchronising gear; faster German types later outclassed it.

The AIM-9 Sidewinder, carried by Western fighters since the 1950s, finds its target by homing on what?

Infrared heat from an aircraft's engine is what it chases; the missile is named after the sidewinder rattlesnake, which hunts warm-blooded prey with heat-sensing organs of its own.