Best Plane never Made.

I don;t know if it fits the profile but I like to say the X33 supossed to be follow up for space shuttle

Mig 25 Foxbat

This may not be the best plane ever built but it sure comes close. Very interesting reading here. Click HERE.

Mig 25 Foxbat

best plane nEVER built...

Mig-25.... this hand-welded, all-steel aircraft made western engineer's hair stand straight up

in egypt - 4 foxbats were sent to take pictures of egyptian military (spying). whole Israeli airforce was sent in air to intersept 4 mig-25s, and... they failed to . Mig-25 were flying sky high going mach 3.2. Foxbats finished their mission successfully and brought back clear pictures. boy, i just imagine the expression of israeli/egyptian generals.

westerners and their allies WAY overestimated mig-25... just holarious

but anyways, my vote for best plane built goes to blackbird

Originally posted by flashburn
Mig 25 Foxbat

This may not be the best plane ever built but it sure comes close. Very interesting reading here. Click HERE.

That was a great link, raelly opened my eyes to the power of the Foxbat.

An SR-71 with Pheonix missiles would be a very poor interceptor. It has poos manouverability at all speed regimes and would only be useful was a hit and run missile platform. even then, it would have to fly at low supersonic speeds in order to fire the missiles. Drag would be enormous if they were externally mounted, and if they were internal, a lot of fuel would have to be removed.

Bad idea all round

The best plane never built is the f-16xl, but hopefully parts of it will be resurected in the FB_22 if it is built.

The F-15 too was an improved copy of the mig-25 foxbat.

The foxbat was is used in recon by India too.

Read :In May 1997, an IAF MiG-25R Foxbat-B reconnaissance aircraft created a furore when the pilot flew faster than Mach 2 over Pakistani territory.... [By Peter Steinemann] in vayu-sena.tripod.com...

Originally posted by Stealth Spy
The F-15 too was an improved copy of the mig-25 foxbat.

I would like to see the link to an article provinng that, because its false! They are completely different aircraft. The F-15 goes slower and is more manueverable while the Foxbat is simply a point blank interceptor that was designed to shoot down the xb-70 and hardly has any manueverability.

Also there is a Super Tomcat, the F-14D. I think your thinking of the Super Tomcat 21. I personally believe that the Super Tomcat 21 and/or Quickstrike was one of the best planes never made and should be the ones replacing the current Tomcats, not the marginally effective Air-Air Super Hornet.

Maybe he was a bit OTT saying the F-15 was a copy of the MiG 25, but there is no doubt that the shape of the MiG 25 was a big influence on the design of the F-15. When you dismiss this by pointing out the different roles and capabilities of the two types you are making the mistake of making a judgement from todays perspective when we know all about the MiG 25, in the late sixties when the Foxbat was first discovered the best fighter in the west was the F-4 and the analysts who poured over the pictures of the MiG 25 made the same mistake they always have of ascribing the aircraft far greater capabilities than it actually had. The west was VERY scared of what the MiG 25 represented as for the first time the Russians had a fighter that was clearly a generation ahead of anything that we had, from an aerodynamic point of view, with its swept shoulder wing, twin fins and big engines and it was assumed that the internal equipment would be similarly advanced. It was even stated that the type was clearly designed for high speed manoevering which we now know to be false, hence the programmes for the F-14 and F-15 and their superficial similarities to the 'Big Mig'.

Originally posted by roniii259

Originally posted by Stealth Spy
The F-15 too was an improved copy of the mig-25 foxbat.

I would like to see the link to an article provinng that, because its false! They are completely different aircraft. The F-15 goes slower and is more manueverable while the Foxbat is simply a point blank interceptor that was designed to shoot down the xb-70 and hardly has any manueverability.

Here you go : www.hostultra.com...

"In 1976, the Hakodate airfield in Japan was graced with the Foxbat A's presence when Soviet Air Force Lieutenant Viktor Belenko chose the location for which to defect. After his Foxbat craft was dissected, remantled, and returned to the then-U.S.S.R., manufacturers worldwide gained massive amounts of data in order to remake the plane. Over the years, the MiG-25 has been involved with air combat missions all over the world, used by Algeria and Iraq as Interceptor craft. India also uses them in a reconnaissance function, and they and Libya use them as trainer planes. Syria has lost Foxbats to Israel's Eagles during war in the Bekaa valley, and its originators, Russia, have adapted the plane for every significant military role possible. ................After two MiG-25 craft were sighted and chased by Israel's Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets without contact, reports prompted manufacturers to complete the F-15 Eagle Mach 2+ speed aircraft from data gained from the Mig-25 in order to compete in the "cold war".......... As an example for the United States' F-15 Eagle aircraft, the MiG-25 Foxbat prototype was produced in the late 1950s, and entered the public eye creating and being redesigned amid a storm of controversy. "

Actually I stuck up for you a bit with my last post as you had a point but if you are saying the F-15 was designed from the dissection of Victor Belenkos Mig 25, then that is cobblers. For one thing the F-15 FLEW four years before that defection, nuff said.

Le F-15 avait, en quelque sorte, �t� con�u en r�ponse � la pr�sentation du MiG-25 et il est donc normal que leur structure soir similaire, bien que l'apparence de l'avion sovi�tique soit plus rustique. En dehors du fait que le MiG-25 soit peu � peu retir� de service (on peut le croiser dans des pays de l'ancien bloc de l'Est et au Proche Orient), toute confusion est impossible gr�ce � certains �l�ments tr�s nettement visibles :

Points d'emports de missiles en bouts d'ailes (1)
Larges d�rives inclin�es vers l'ext�rieur et sans pods �lectroniques au sommet (2)
Cockpit sans visibilit� vers l'arri�re (3)
Entr�es d'air d�pourvues de g�ometrie variable

(I hope you can understand this french part. It is from faq.bigip.mine.nu:8008...)



I dont really mean that the F-15 was copied.
Later versions incorporated LOTS of stuff from the disected Mig-25.

I am not saying the F-15 was designed from scratch using the Mig.

[edit on 27-9-2004 by Stealth Spy]

[edit on 27-9-2004 by Stealth Spy]

Every report I have read suggestsd that the defection of Belenko actually exploded the myth of the MiG 25 and although it showed us what an awesome high speed interceptor it was it also disproved all the theories about its supposed capabilities and advanced systems that could be seen to be bunkum.

I agree with you that the F-15 was heavily influenced by the MiG25 but I don't accept that any of it was incorporated into the F-15, ever.

For example (from the illustration, I am English and therefore do not understand French )

The canopy of the F-15 is far superior to that on the Mig 25 and always was, affording the pilot excellent all round visibility that the MiG pilot could only dream of, the variable geometry air intakes of the F-15 were present from the start of the programme and were not added after 1976. Neither aircraft carries missiles on its wingtips (if that is what was meant).

Prove me wrong, i would love to be as some of the 'we are great' American brigade would be horrified if it was true, but I don't buy it.

Here are the preliominary layouts researched by NASA for the USAF FX programme. LFAX 10 was described as being 'like the Soviet MiG 25' but it was LFAX 8 that the McDonnell Douglas team almost slavishly copied, even so the MiG 25 influenmce is clear. It was based on a superficial knowledge of the Soviet type plus some guesswork, not really a copy.

By far the most interesting U.S. plane never flown has to be the Davis Manta Wing. The idea for it was scrapped in the 40s, with some great controversy.

home.wanadoo.nl...


1940 = 1pCmwM rg flying-wing design project for a military fighter with 1200hp unspecified motor. David R Davis. Thick-root, manta ray-shaped wing with a slim conventional fuselage and tail group, apparently never made it into production.
1941 Air International reports: 1150hp Allison V-1710-E; span 50'0". W [William?] Waterhouse. A full-size mock-up constructed, but the design was abandoned [reasons unstated]. (� Tore Eriksson 2/23/00)

Feb 1942 Aviation adds: Allison mounted amidships [as in P-39], four-blade contrarotating prop, high-taper Davis wing with modified tips to prevent tip stall. Scheduled armament: 4 cannon and 4 mgs; estimated v: 425 and range: 3,500. (� Larry McClellan 12/5/03)

www.aerofiles.com...

Very little info on this project exists, however.

Now i know china are not the only guys who copy ..................................................................................

.....................

Originally posted by Stealth Spy
The F-15 too was an improved copy of the mig-25 foxbat.

Dude, Dude, Duuuude come on now. the Mig-25 is an interceptor, the F-15 performs that role but can dogfight as well. The F-15 was designed in responce to the advance of Soviet fighters and the Mig 25 was considered its chief adversary. The twin tales and twin engines are about all that there is in common. It size was dictated by the huge radar they mounted in it.

If anything the SU-27 was a responce to the F-15

Originally posted by FredT

Originally posted by Stealth Spy
The F-15 too was an improved copy of the mig-25 foxbat.

Dude, Dude, Duuuude come on now. the Mig-25 is an interceptor, the F-15 performs that role but can dogfight as well. The F-15 was designed in responce to the advance of Soviet fighters and the Mig 25 was considered its chief adversary. The twin tales and twin engines are about all that there is in common. It size was dictated by the huge radar they mounted in it.

If anything the SU-27 was a responce to the F-15

i am unable to edit my posts !

i alredy took back that staement you and the others are repeatedly quoting using it as a pretext to harass me.

All nice airplanes, but especially with the cold war aircraft, they have never DONE anything. My votes are for the 3 planes that changed the world.

P-51
B-17
B-24

Originally posted by Stealth Spy
i alredy took back that staement you and the others are repeatedly quoting using it as a pretext to harass me.

My post was hardly harasment in any form. thats the whole point of a debate. At any rate I looked through the thread and must have missed the mea culpa. No harm at any rate.



[edit on 1/9/05 by FredT]