Fighter Jet Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
This fighter jet trivia quiz has 49 free questions with answers and starts with the first operational jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262, and runs through the swept-wing duels of MiG Alley, the Phantom and Tomcat era, the F-15's perfect combat record, the F-16's fly-by-wire trick and the stealth generation of the F-22, F-35, J-20 and Su-57. It also covers the people and gear around the cockpit: what makes a pilot an ace, the top-scoring aces of both world wars, how ejection seats and G-suits work, why afterburners are called reheat, and which jets the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds and Top Gun films actually flew. There are a few propeller-era questions on the Spitfire, Mustang, Zero and Red Baron for context. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which aircraft was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter?
Messerschmitt Me 262
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.
Q 02Which was the only Allied jet aircraft to see combat in the Second World War?
Gloster Meteor
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.
Q 03The F-86 Sabre fought some of the first jet-versus-jet battles against the MiG-15 during which war?
The Korean 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.
Q 04The 'MiG' in MiG-15 is short for what?
Its two designers' surnames
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'.
Q 05Which Soviet fighter, NATO codename Fishbed, is the most-produced supersonic jet in history?
MiG-21
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.
Q 06Which fighter has a combat record of more than 100 air-to-air kills without a single loss in air combat?
F-15 Eagle
F-15 Eagle: in 1983 an Israeli pilot even landed one safely after a mid-air collision tore off almost its entire right wing.
Q 07By what nickname do pilots commonly know the F-16 Fighting Falcon?
Viper
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.
Q 08The F-16 was the first production fighter deliberately designed to be what?
Slightly aerodynamically unstable
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'.
Q 09What distinctive wing feature does the F-14 Tomcat have?
Variable-sweep wings
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.
Q 10Which country is the only one besides the United States ever to fly the F-14 Tomcat?
Iran
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.
Q 11The F-22's 'supercruise' is sustained supersonic flight without using what?
Afterburners
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.
Q 12Which of the F-35's three variants is the short take-off and vertical-landing version?
F-35B
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.
Q 13The custom-fitted helmet worn by F-35 pilots famously lets them do what?
Look straight through the airframe
Q 21Which company marketed the F-104 Starfighter with the slogan 'the missile with a man in it'?
Lockheed
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'.
Q 22The British-designed Harrier became famous for which capability?
Vertical and short take-off
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.
Q 23The Panavia Tornado was jointly developed by Italy, Germany and which other nation?
Britain
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.
Q 14Which was the first fifth-generation fighter to enter service, in December 2005?
F-22 Raptor
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.
Q 15China's Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter is known by which nickname?
Mighty Dragon
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.
Q 16What is the NATO reporting name of Russia's Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter?
Felon
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.
Q 17In 1976 Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko defected by flying his MiG-25 to an airport in which country?
Japan
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.
Q 18Which four nations manage the Eurofighter Typhoon programme?
UK, Germany, Italy and Spain
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.
Q 19Sweden's Saab JAS 39 fighter is named after which mythical creature?
Griffin
Griffin is 'Gripen' in Swedish; the name was chosen through a public competition and matches the heraldic beast on Saab's logo.
Q 20Which was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in level flight, in October 1958?
Dassault Mirage III
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.
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.
Q 24Despite the 'Stealth Fighter' label, the F-117 Nighthawk was designed for what role?
Ground attack
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.
Q 25What is the British term for a jet engine afterburner?
Reheat
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.
Q 26Which company's ejection seats have saved more than 7,000 aircrew lives since the 1940s?
Martin-Baker
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.
Q 27The first aircraft with an ejection seat, in 1940, was a prototype jet from which manufacturer?
Heinkel
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.
Q 28A G-suit prevents blackouts by stopping blood from pooling where?
In the lower body
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.
Q 29How many aerial victories does a pilot usually need to be called an ace?
Five
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.
Q 30How many aerial victories was the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, officially credited with?
80
80 victories made him the war's top ace, yet only 19 of them came in the red triplane he is always pictured in.