If You Could Have Been A Fighter Pilot? - Page 6

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - If You Could Have Been A Fighter Pilot? (Page 6 of 6)

Posted: 1/3/2024 12:45:24 AM EST

[#1]

This is sort of cheating because it's actually a ground attack aircraft but I'd be an f-117 pilot during desert storm.

It has a fighter designated so it counts

Posted: 1/3/2024 12:48:55 AM EST

[#2]

The best one that never was...

Attached File

ETA: I chose not to list the YF-12, because while the Blackbird is the most badass aircraft ever built (as far as I'm concerned), it would have made a pretty shitty fighter, unless raw speed was the only criteria.

Posted: 1/3/2024 1:01:27 AM EST

[#3]

I wanted to be a fighter pilot since I was 3 years old. Both my parents were in the Air Force. I was born over-seas. Grew up on Air Force bases seeing fighters flying around all the time. I wanted to fly an F16. Nobody told me I couldn't be a pilot due to bad eyesight until I was in high school, not even my parents. I was crushed.

Posted: 1/3/2024 5:39:57 AM EST

[#4]

A-6E in the gulf war or Bosnia

Posted: 1/3/2024 6:26:44 AM EST

[#5]

Quote History

Quoted:
The best one that never was...
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32329/080902-F-1234S-001_jpeg-3080226.JPG

ETA: I chose not to list the YF-12, because while the Blackbird is the most badass aircraft ever built (as far as I'm concerned), it would have made a pretty shitty fighter, unless raw speed was the only criteria.

View Quote

As an interceptor the A-12 would have excelled.....straight line to the target , launch and leave

Posted: 1/3/2024 6:38:57 AM EST

[#6]

Quote History

Quoted:

As an interceptor the A-12 would have excelled.....straight line to the target , launch and leave

View Quote

What's its turn rate at Mach 3?

Posted: 1/3/2024 7:08:13 AM EST

[#7]

Easy, F-14D.

Just because I can't help myself:

P-3C III
S-3B
SH-60B

Posted: 1/3/2024 7:21:57 AM EST

[#8]

P-51 in WWII, or maybe a P-38 in the Pacific Theatre.
I love the P-47, but it didn't have the range to rack up the victories like the Mustang did, But I'd have one heck of a time blowing things up and strafing trains!

It's hard to pick one great aircraft to kill an enemy with.

Posted: 1/3/2024 7:24:09 AM EST

[#9]

F-104 all day long

Posted: 1/3/2024 7:30:09 AM EST

[#10]

Quote History

Quoted:
F-14 Tomcat. Anything else is phaggotry.

View Quote

Posted: 1/3/2024 7:32:13 AM EST

[#11]

F-101B Voodoo. I've always loved that one. Check out those afterburners.

The F-101B had more powerful Pratt & Whitney J57-P-55 engines, making it the only Voodoo not using the -13 engines. The new engines featured a substantially longer afterburner than J57-P-13s. To avoid a major redesign, the extended afterburners were simply allowed to extend out of the fuselage by almost 8 ft (2.4 m). The more powerful engines and aerodynamic refinements allowed an increased speed of Mach 1.85.

Posted: 1/3/2024 7:48:45 AM EST

[#12]

P-26 Peashooter .. taking out King Kong while he was on top the Empire State building....

Posted: 1/3/2024 7:55:08 AM EST

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:

As an interceptor the A-12 would have excelled.....straight line to the target , launch and leave

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
The best one that never was...
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32329/080902-F-1234S-001_jpeg-3080226.JPG

ETA: I chose not to list the YF-12, because while the Blackbird is the most badass aircraft ever built (as far as I'm concerned), it would have made a pretty shitty fighter, unless raw speed was the only criteria.

As an interceptor the A-12 would have excelled.....straight line to the target , launch and leave

Reaction time would have been a problem. As I understand it the Blackbird was not quick to launch.

Posted: 1/3/2024 8:02:13 AM EST

[#14]

Quote History

Quoted:
In my day...Skyraider

View Quote

Posted: 1/3/2024 8:08:59 AM EST

[#15]

FPNI.

Posted: 1/3/2024 8:10:30 AM EST

[#16]

Corsair

Posted: 1/3/2024 8:13:26 AM EST

[#17]

Quote History

Quoted:
F-14 Tomcat. Anything else is phaggotry.

View Quote

I remember seeing a coin a pilot in one of the last F-4 squadrons had. It said “F-4’s forever” and “Better a sister in a whorehouse than a brother in an F-14”

Posted: 1/3/2024 8:16:18 AM EST

[#18]

Love the Thud, but I pick the F-16 because I was a Viper Crew Chief.

Posted: 1/3/2024 8:27:34 AM EST

[#19]

Quote History

Quoted:
sukhoi su-27

View Quote

This. Or a Mig-25.

Posted: 1/3/2024 8:30:17 AM EST

[#20]

F-15, no question. It is one bad motherfucker.

Posted: 1/3/2024 8:51:53 AM EST

[#21]

Posted: 1/3/2024 9:02:55 AM EST

[#22]

A-10. I wanted to do that when I was in HS in the 80s. It's still a sweet looking brawler of a jet.

Posted: 1/3/2024 9:05:37 AM EST

[#23]

F-16 in Desert Storm

Posted: 1/3/2024 9:18:16 AM EST

[#24]

This the fastest single engine aircraft. A close second would be a late block F-4E.

Posted: 1/3/2024 9:46:26 AM EST

[#25]

Lets revisit this question after next couple of conflicts. +\- 15 years…

I said Eagle because of its record.

Eliminating the chance to be unable to reply to thread.

Ill take backseat with Robin Olds for second choice.

Posted: 1/3/2024 9:47:06 AM EST

[#26]

Quote History

Quoted:
A few years ago my subconscious spun me a story about times in previous lives where I had bumped into the aforementioned guy who scared some Italian F-104 pilots. In the last part of the story he was a mechanic and I was a gunner in a Bristol Fighter at the end of WW1.

Probably just the product of an overactive imagination. But I could feel layers and layers of fear in that story. Didn't help that it ended with me getting shot and bleeding out before we could get back to base.

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I once had a dream that I was a gunner in a B17 or similar. Hard to tell from the inside, and even moreso because we were crashing. The fuselage was spinning so fast that I was pinned against the wall by the centripetal force and I couldn't make it to the exit despite having my parachute on. It was one of the most vivid dreams I've ever had. I woke up in a cold sweat.

Posted: 1/3/2024 10:20:12 AM EST

[#27]

Quote History

Quoted:

What's its turn rate at Mach 3?

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Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:

As an interceptor the A-12 would have excelled.....straight line to the target , launch and leave

What's its turn rate at Mach 3?

About three states.

Posted: 1/3/2024 10:24:56 AM EST

[#28]

GCI: "OxCart 1-1, bandits 345 for 60 at 32,000"

A12: "Copy, I just have to hit the tanker real quick, then I'll get right on it"

Posted: 1/3/2024 10:27:22 AM EST

[#29]

I would pick one that had a trap door in the floor of the cocktail for a camera. That way I would be able to drop my barf bags after I filled them up.

Posted: 1/3/2024 10:28:12 AM EST

[#30]

A10!

the coolest fucking thing on earth!

Posted: 1/3/2024 10:29:42 AM EST

[#31]

Quote History

Quoted:
Well in an alternate universe OV-10 for me. I know it's not a fighter.

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Overies Rule! Vomit Twice!

Posted: 1/3/2024 10:32:31 AM EST

[#32]

Flying MirageIII's over Sanai against Egyptian MiGs would have been pretty epic.

Posted: 1/3/2024 10:45:04 AM EST

[#33]

P-40s since I was a kid. Always the P-40

Posted: 1/3/2024 10:46:12 AM EST

[#34]

As a Gen X Cold War kid...F-16 Viper. I always wanted to be Doug Masters in Iron Eagle.

Now as a grown man and seeing the abilities modern science and engineering has been able to evolve then it would be the F-22 Raptor.

Posted: 1/3/2024 11:21:36 AM EST

[#35]

F-14 Tomcat

Posted: 1/3/2024 12:11:44 PM EST

[#36]

Quote History

Quoted:
I wanted to be a fighter pilot since I was 3 years old. Both my parents were in the Air Force. I was born over-seas. Grew up on Air Force bases seeing fighters flying around all the time. I wanted to fly an F16. Nobody told me I couldn't be a pilot due to bad eyesight until I was in high school, not even my parents. I was crushed.

View Quote

I still remember that conversation with my dad when I was around 12-13 years old. "You know there are other jobs in the Air Force" WTF

Posted: 1/3/2024 6:29:30 PM EST

[#37]

They sent Dad to multiengine and B-17 school, but he had fun flying solo in the Vultee Vibrator.

I think he was about 22.

Posted: 1/3/2024 11:16:05 PM EST

[#38]

As a young man I always had a chubby for the F-4 Phantom. However I think for pure fun I'd take an F-16

Posted: 1/3/2024 11:34:03 PM EST

[#39]

Attached File

Posted: 1/3/2024 11:37:40 PM EST

[#40]

YF-23 because I don't know shit about flying or planes but if I'm going to die in A2A combat, at least I'll be in a cool looking plane in the alternate universe where it was chosen over the F-22.