The worst:
5. Royal B.E.2
4. Brewster Buffalo
3. Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3
2. Century Series (F-101, F-102, F-104, F-105)
1. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23
The best:
5. Spad S.XIII
4. Grumman F6F Hellcat
3. Messerschmitt Me-262 Swallow
2. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 “Fishbed”
1. McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle
Let the debate commence!
Any list without the P-51 Mustang is bogus.
ME262 was not good, but it was the first to see combat.
I’m surprised the Spitfire and FW 190 were not considered.
Any list that puts the century series in “worst” is compiled by idiots.
FW-190
ME-109
Spitfire
P-47
P-51
Leave any of these of the list and the list is suspect.
Leave ALL of them off and the list is nonsense.
The Finns showed the Soviets that the Brewster Buffalo was a great plane when flown by competent and motivated pilots.
F-14 TomCat should also be at the top of the list (and the Bombcat too)
F-4u Corsair
Take the ME-262 off the list.
P-51 deserves mention as the best allied fighter in the hands of the average allied pilot.
The BE2 was not a fighter. It was an observation aircraft. In WWI, things changed so fast that there wasn’t really a fighter that deserved to be on the “worst list.” One month a fighter would be ruling the skies, the next it would be obsolescent.
The Buffalo worked great for the Finns and did okay for the Brits in the Far East.
The LaGG-3 deserves to be there.
Dunno why the Century series would make the “worst” list - at worst they were simply mediocre. Now the F-89 Scorpion with its all-rocket armament...
The MiG-23 was only mediocre, too. I think it gets its bad reputation from the undertrained pilots flying the export version.
Dunno ‘bout the ‘best’ list, either.
It doesn’t have the YAK-3, Spitfire, P-51, P-47, P-38, Bf-109 or FW-190, but has the MiG-21? I don’t think that works.
Don’t think Me-262 deserves to be in there either - it simply didn’t see enough service to earn such a position.
A best of five list without the Japanese Zero is nationalist nonsense. The plane, best of the world in its day, weighed the same as an SUV, but the radial engine produced over 1,000 horsepower. If you can imagine driving a thousand HP SUV, you can imagine what it was like handling a Zero.
Imagine the look on the faces of the pilots when they were told, "Here's your new plane. Behold the chode!"
Supermarine Spitfire should be in the list of the best.
262 does not belong on the list at all.
Better to pick one or two from each era.
Worst? Dont really care about the losers.
Who ever wrote that article is a moron and does not have any business commenting on aviation or fighter aircraft. That is the dumbest list I have ever seen.
These types of lists end up being “personal opinion” because they often don’t establish qualitative measurements for performance. I have my personal favorites of fighters and bombers for different eras.
Nice picture of the 3 model kits.
WTF? Oh boy. I suspect they are only considering the amount of enemy they shot down, and even then.
P51
Spitfire
P47
P38
F4
All WW2 I put the 51 on top because of its range. The 47 did not have the range because it was a hell of a gas hog.
The 38 actually got near the sound barrier in its dives and pilots had real problems with it till they fixed that. Besides that, it was a plane designed by the best.
I know the list is for fighter planes but Airwolf was pretty badass.
In 1944-46 I saw hundreds of Corsairs roll out the Stratford factory plant doors and take off. Even then, as a kid, I knew I would never forget the roar of a F4U, my No. 1.
My father was chief electrical inspector at Chance Vought.