It was the most impressive fighter aircraft seen to date.
Designed around a breakthrough technology, it was heavily armed with the latest air-to-air weapons and was capable of flying faster than its enemies and destroying previously invulnerable enemy aircraft.
One British pilot called it the most formidable fighter that the world had seen to date. Its pilots said it was a delight to fly.
Yet military historians today say the German Messerschmidt 262 fighter had little effect on the air war over Europe during World War II, and two military aviation experts last week warned that the U.S. Air Force has likely set itself up to repeat the harsh lesson of the Me-262 Stormbird in a future conflict against an adversary with a modern air force.
Posted 2/2/2012 7:49 pm
ok so who is gonna care about manned fighters when we have armarda of unmanned superfighers who can out accelerate, out turn and demolish anything flown by a human?
Posted 2/2/2012 7:52 pm
link to those planes, "Let's not keep fighting last years wars"
thats why the phantom 2 had no guns, no more guns in future wars, thats why no planes were designed for ground support roles, nukes were going to decide how wars are won.
Posted 2/2/2012 7:57 pm
But if we don't have trillion dollar fighter programs what will happen to the Hard Working Americans who make cool leather flight jackets and squadron patches?
But all it's fucking good for is showing off. They can't use them in a war against anyone but Russia or China because they're too damn expensive to risk in a normal dust-up.
And if we ever got into a war with Russia or China we're completely fucked with or without F-35.
You are a conspiracy theorist nut and a traitorous arab lover terrorist and your children should be raped before your horrified eyes and then disemboweled.
\
Posted 2/2/2012 9:48 pm
Manned aircraft will ultimately go the way of large surface warships, which are also on the way out. They are just too vulnerable to missiles, to say nothing of the capabilities of drones. Even if it weren't for missiles, in 2 or 3 decades the tech behind how powered lasers will have reached the point where aircraft are completely obsolete on the battlefield.
But they'll still be flying manned aircraft from carriers long after you're worm food.