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A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for attacking other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed to attack ground targets, primarily by dropping bombs. Fighters are comparatively small, fast, and maneuverable. They were developed in response to the fledgling use of aircraft and dirigibles in World War I for reconnaissance and ground attack roles. These early fighters were mostly wooden biplanes with light machine guns. As aerial warfare became increasingly important, so did control of the airspace. By World War II, fighters were predominantly metal monoplanes with wing-mounted cannon. Following the war, turbojets replaced piston engines as the means of propulsion, and missiles augmented or replaced guns. For historical purposes, jet fighters are classified by generation. The generation terminology was initiated by Russian defense parlance in referring to the F-35 Lightning II as a "fifth generation" plane. Years are not exact and intended as a guideline. Modern jet fighters are predominantly powered by one or two turbofan engines, armed primarily with missiles, and equipped with a radar as the primary method of target acquisition.

Prop-powered fighters

World War I

Combat between aircraft has its origins in encounters between opposing scout aircraft early in World War I. Since early scout aircraft were unarmed, early encounters between opposing scouts were peaceful—pilots would often wave to one another as they passed by. Crafty pilots attempted to shoot down their counterparts in a manner of amateur ways, including grappling hooks, small arms, and grenades. As militaries realized the importance of aerial reconnaissance by aircraft and dirigibles, they also realized the importance of arming aircraft to destroy enemy scouts. One early solution was to mount a swiveling machine gun for the backseater or a forward-facing machine gun on the top wing to clear the propeller. Neither was particularly useful for a single seater, the latter being difficult to aim and reload. The central obstacle was firing a machine gun through the arc of the propeller without hitting the blades. French aviator Roland Garros's solution was to fit deflector plates to his propellers where the machinegun would strike. This was an imperfect solution as the plates could not withstand repeated fire. A copy eventually ended up in German hands after a prototype crashed in German territory. Inspired by this, Anthony Fokker's team invented the more reliable interrupter gear, which enabled the widespread design of single-seat fighters.

Notable aircraft:

1919-1938

Fighter development slowed between the wars, the most significant change coming from the change from wood, cloth-skinned biplanes to metal, monocoque or semi-monocoque monoplanes. Nations dabbled with twin-engined fighters as heavy fighters, but the idea did not take hold except for some specialized applications requiring a heavier payload. The primary driver of fighter innovation were not military budgets, but civilian aircraft races. Aircraft designed for these races sported innovations like streamlining and liquid-cooled engines that would find their way into the fighters of World War II.

Notable aircraft:

World War II

Aerial combat formed an important part of World War II military doctrine. The ability of aircraft to locate, harass, and interdict ground forces was an instrumental part of the German combined-arms doctrine, and their inability to seize air superiority over Britain rendered an invasion infeasible. Erwin Rommel noted the effect of airpower with the following quote: "Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success."

Fighter aircraft of the second world war featured all the innovations of the 1930s. Piston-engined fighters continued to be refined and developed with increasing performance and capabilities, up until the advent of jet aircraft such as the Messerschmitt Me 262 and Gloster Meteor. Many of these fighters would do over 400 mph (600 km/h) in level flight, and were fast enough in a dive that they started encountering the transonic buffeting experienced near the speed of sound, occasionally breaking up in flight due to the heavy load placed on an aircraft near the so-called "sound barrier". Dive brakes were developed late in World War II to minimize these problems and restore control to the pilots.

Radar, invented shortly prior to World War II, was fitted to some fighters, such as the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Northrop P-61 Black Widow to enable them to locate targets at night. Another innovation of this period was the strike fighter. Short on aircraft, Marines in the Pacific bolted bomb racks on to their F4U Corsairs. This proved a versatile concept, as the fighters were able to fight enemy fighters once they had relieved themselves of their bombload.

Notable Aircraft:

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Fighter aircraft".

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