• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

What is (in your opinion) the BEST fighter plane that has EVER served in the Navy / Marine Corps?

TOPGUN1991

Naval Aviation Hopeful!
Just for fun: What is your favorite / or in your opinion the very BEST fighter plane the Navy or Marines have EVER taken to the skies?
 

dtxz

Looks Lost
pilot
img02410.jpg
 

BusyBee604

St. Francis/Hugh Hefner Combo!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Taking a chance on being stupid (I'm already ugly)! Breaking it down to 2, prop & jet...

Prop: Grumman F6F "Hellcat".

Jet: Chance Vought F8U "Crusader".
JMHO
*Now mind your manners, kiddies!;)
BzB
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
It's not like I have experience in either of these, but the two I'd give a first born to fly would have been the F-8 and the RA-5C. You can't say this about a lot of jets, but they look sexy and fast even parked on the ground. I almost missed my takeoff clearance from Sherman field last month while drooling over an A-5 sitting within view of the hold short.
 

phrogdriver

More humble than you would understand
pilot
Super Moderator
The "best?" What are the criteria? Actual performance? Well, the newest one is probably the best, so lets just hand it to the newest one: the F/A-18E/F. I'd be willing to bet that all else being the same, it would defeat its predecessors. Are we done now?

Are you talking about ability relative to its opponents at the time? Length of service? Drool factor? These things can get silly, and are inherently meaningless.
 

Renegade One

Well-Known Member
None
Crap...part of being here is making a stand and defending it, so here goes:

Given the Navy/Marine SHARED mission of CAS, I'd probably have to vote for the "F4" family...Grumman F4Fs from the "Cactus Air Force" on Guadalcanal, the Vought F4U Corsair (and all of its variants...A4U in the case of VMA-323 "Death Rattlers" for example...) in Korea, and the McDonnel-Douglas F-4 family of Marine fighter/bomber jets that flew out of Chu Lai, Da Nang, yadda yadda yadda...in Viet Nam.
 

jmcquate

Well-Known Member
Contributor
SBDs put alot of Japanese tonnage on the bottom of the Pacific and wasn't to shabby at air to air.
 

Fog

Old RIOs never die: They just can't fast-erect
None
Contributor
Best purely ACM machine was probably the F-8 Crusader, but the best all-around fighter would have to be the F-14B (big engines) Tomcat. As much as I hate to say it, it wasn't the F-4 Phantom - had to be fought just so, mostly in the vertical, and it had no gun. JMHO.
 

craftingraptor

Dreaming about the P-8A
pilot
Just for fun: What is your favorite / or in your opinion the very BEST fighter plane the Navy or Marines have EVER taken to the skies?
1) Fun on an aviation forum? Never heard of it!
2) You be crazy, started all these threads like this. The mods don't quite know what to do with you yet, but you make a mistake and they be all up on you like a fat kid on butter.
3) My favorite plane (makes me jealous that the marines get to have all the fun).

air_harrier_gr7a_afghanistan_frontal_flares_lg1.jpg
 
Top