Top 5 US Naval Fighters of all time

Here is my list of 5 Top fighter that served in navy.

F-14 Tomcat: Ultimate Fleet Defender, Hate to see it leave service, I REALLY WILL MISS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

F/A-18 Hornet: Not fast for a fighter but can do some sick stunts. Easy to fly and maintain, cheap to run and also exported to other NATO Countries.

F-4 Phantom: Also served in the USMC. This plane was effective although it had no gun system. Served in vietnam and up to the mid 1980s.

F-8 Crusader:Last of the gunfighters so the pilots call it, This was used around the early 1960 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

F-9 Panther/Cougar: Played the USN part in the Korean War.

Anything else out there?.

[edit on 2-12-2005 by Browno]

Uhh, Hellcat and Corsair? (You didn't limit it to jets)


Me, I'd have the Phantom above the Hornet anyday - purely due to the fact its walked the walk.

I could not disagree more with leaving off the F6F Hellcat. This plane downed more enemy aircraft than any other fighter, all theatres included. This plane never receives the recognotion it deserves

[edit on 2-12-2005 by zoso28]

Yep got to have the Hellcat in there 2nd below the Tomcat...and im sure the Corsair deserves a place in the top 5 more than Panther/Cougar....

[edit on 2-12-2005 by bmdefiant]

The Vought F-7 Cutlass was ok maybe in flying performances but i think really it was the very long front landing gear that caused the crashes. The whole airframe would be better if the nose leg was shortened, front canards maybe, wings sweped back more and supersonic engines installed to it. This thing would be a killer just if someone had all this in mind!.

Not just saying this like but i heard the Cutlass replaced the F-4 Phantom temporarily becouse it had better performances against migs in combat but soon after that, The USN swiched back to the F-4 Phantoms.

I seen a small print whith the F-7 on board the USS Coral sea circa 1970/71?.

Anyone else seen it?

How about the Douglas F3D Skynight? Straight wings and kind of big, but it had a good radar and shot down several MiG-15s over Korea. It's kind of overlooked, since the more common navy type was the F9F Cougar/Panther. But it did a suprisingly good job. I was more impressed with it the more I read about it.

1. F4 Phantom II - Probably the most versatile (interceptor, ground-attack, SEAD, etc.)
2. A4 Skyhawk - very nimble and rugged ground attack
3. F6F Hellcat - Marianna Turkey Shoot Anyone ?
4. F7 Tigercat - Introduced at the end of WWII but would have made huge impact in prop era.
5. F8 Bearcat - Also introduced too late for WWII but unquestionably the most powerful single engine naval prop fighter deployed.

W.E.S.B

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WHAT ELSE WOULD IT BE BUT No 1

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[edit on 8/12/2005 by Mirthful Me]

[edit on 9-12-2005 by Jezza]

i have to agree, the F-14 is by far the best naval fighter/interceptor made......Mach 2, the AIM-54, it's just unstoppable

It makes me mad that they're phasing it out

And i will say that i think the F-4 should be up there too, but what were the designers thinking when they didn't originally give it a gun??

I guess we all belong to te generation that grew and loved the F-14.

There is no better looking and cooler airplane than this. I remember cutting the newspapers everytime the TOMCAT appeared on it. I still have the clipping of when they shot down two Lybian MIG-23's in the 80's.

It will be missed a lot specially since it doesn't leave a replacement (I don't think the SuperHornet can cut it).

Yeah, I totally agree with the F-14 and the Hornet... but you could have put the Corsair and the hellcat there... they were awesome...

Originally posted by carcharodon
I guess we all belong to te generation that grew and loved the F-14.

There is no better looking and cooler airplane than this. I remember cutting the newspapers everytime the TOMCAT appeared on it. I still have the clipping of when they shot down two Lybian MIG-23's in the 80's.

It will be missed a lot specially since it doesn't leave a replacement (I don't think the SuperHornet can cut it).

I dont blame you mate for cutting Tomcat images out of newspapers, It shows how much you love it, Im a Tomcat lover too and i bet the two of us will miss it so much and we will always remember it.

I dont like this 'super' hornet much since it has took over the role of the
F-14 and pilots even say this new hornet is not so super as it was meant to be. I hope the new F/A-18 wont last but if it does, it could just replace the older F/A-18s maybe.

www.amarcexperience.com...

There are some dreadful images of disposed F-14s on this site above.
I dont care if the F-14 is old, These planes are too good to be disposed of, they should survive in another NATO air force/naval air wing. The Super Tomcat 21 programme should have taken place instead of buying this new Hornet. I still think they should have made a F-15N Sea Eagle to back the Tomcat up if the need arised.

www.ausairpower.net...

Australia is expanding the life of thier F-111 Aardvarks. There was a discussion about F-111s and the JSFs, The F-111s happened to be more advanced than the JSFs even though it is alot older!.

The same thing should be done to the F-14 Tomcat, It is too good to go and i hope the US Government/AMARC will be extremely sorry for getting rid of them. If the US dont want them, Other NATO countries may be interested in buying them. They may be slightly cheaper now becouse of them being recently replaced.

Those guys at AMARC literally are 'Cat killers'.

The F-14 is and for the distant future will be the #1 Naval aircraft. The reason the Navy removed them from service is because of the cost of upgrading and maintaining the aircraft. Most of the parts for the F-14 stoped being made in the early 90's and in a few rare cases custom parts had to be made to keep the plane flying. Also the reason the US will not sell the airframes to overseas alies is because of the risk that Iran will get ahold of parts to revamp their F-14's that were baught before the take over in the 70's. The F-18 is just being used at this point to give the carriers something to use until the F-35 is deployed. The F-35 will never give Americans the pride that the F-14 did and I belive we will all see alot less Naval Fighter intrest for a long time to come.

Originally posted by seagull
Number Five: F4 Phantom...for lack of anything better...

The Major may just be a ground pounding foot soldier, but the Major knows for sure that there was a better naval fighter than the F-4 Phantom II. That would be the F-8 Crusader. The Phantom II was certainly more versatile, and was adopted by numerous countries, but as far as a "fighter" goes the F-8 would eat an F-4's lunch and would be waiting for dinner to roll around.

In the Vietnam conflict the Crusader had the highest kill ratio over communist jets of any Navy aircraft.

www.voughtaircraft.com...

The Major is resolute that quote negates any question regarding the F-8 vs the F-4, and makes the Major just a wee bit misty. There's a bit of mutual respect between old warhorses.

Take the required remedial action recruit.

Dismissed.

reply to post by Major Discrepancy

1) F-14 - Why, Just think it's was the best Fighter/interceptor the Navy has had.
2) F-4 - Probably the most versatile Fighter ever. (My all time Favorite)
3) F-8 Crusader - Served very well in Vietnam, Don't think it got the credit for the fighter it was.
4) F6F Hellcat - no more need to be said..

Those are my top 4 and really not in a 1 2 3 4 way. But those are just ones that stand out, they had their own era they were top dog in.

Those mentioned that I would leave off

- Corsair - Made it's mark with the Marines
- F7F - My favorite twin, but as the Corsair it served with the Marines as a night fighter.

And the reason I have no #5 on my list a whole era of "Not all that jet aircraft" -

- Any Korean war era Navy fighter - Cutlass, Panther, Cougar..... I just never read anything about a Navy Fighter (really any jet fighter except the F-86) during that period that seemed impressive. Some of them served very well in ground support, but were not good enough to hang with the MIG15. The jet engines of the time just were not able to deliver so you had a whole bunch of under powered aircraft. It was not until the Crusader and Phantom II came along that the Navy was able to have authority back in the sky.

Maybe throw the F4F in as #5? It's pilots gave it a good account until the Hellcat came about.

The Hellcat should go as number one on any list of naval fighters, and not just US naval fighters - it was also operated by the RN & French Navy.

No other naval fighter can match it's combat record - the shiny jets have their place, but results are what count.

Not only did it master all the Japanese fighters, but proved superior to the German aircraft it encountered while in RN Fleet Air Arm service.

It's not a spec sheet fighter - it didn't have the highest top speed, greatest agility, climb rate, armament, armor... what it did have was great flying qualities and a superior combination of characteristics for the combat environment it faced.

Completely agree with Seagull's list. The revised one with the F-8 on it that is.

And just to throw a googly in, the absolute worst naval fighter ever built by anybody in history must surely be the Blackburn Roc. A seriously underpowered and underperforming dive bomber (the Skua) was then encumbered with the weight and complexity of a power operated gun turrret of exactly the same design as you would find on a Lancaster or Halifax whilst NOT being given any forward firing guns at all.

People thought the Defiant was bad, but at least it had a Merlin engine. It was said that the Roc went backwards in a stiff breeze



[edit on 9-9-2008 by waynos]

reply to post by waynos