Century Series Fighters: Which was the best?

Question

The Century Series USAF fighters that became operational were the F-100 Super Saber, the F-101 Voodoo, the F-102 Delta Dagger, the F-104 Starfighter, the F-105 Thunderchief and the F-106 Delta Dart. You can add the F-110 Phantom II if you wish, but it is better known as the F-4. Also the F-111 Aardvark. Several of the Century Series never made it to production and some never flew.

Which of these do you think was the best fighter, noting that some were built as tactical fighters and some as interceptors? Consider performance, mission accomplishment and general service in choosing the best.

The F-110 became the F-4C, which did not carry an internal gun. Many carried gun pods. The internal gun was included in the F-4E.

I would agree the F-4 was a good aircraft and was certainly successful, since it was built in very large numbers for three US services and for several foreign nations.

It should be noted that in the Wild Weasel role the F-105F, a two-seater, was adapted to carry a weapons system officer in the back seat. Single-seat F-105s were not used in this role.

The F-105 was an outstanding performer at lower altitudes. Thuds racked up several MIG kills in Vietnam.

The F-4 was the primary MIG killer in Vietnam, however, mostly F-4C and F-4E versions, but also F-4B and F-4J Navy versions. I will have to check and see if any MIG kills were by F-4Ds.

At some point, and before I declare a best answer, I will give my choice as best Century series fighter. And it will probably surprise some of the folks. But it is a legitimate contender. And it hasn't been mentioned yet.

Before I select a best answer I need to address some things about the F-4.

With more than 5100 airframes delivered to all customers it is a very successful design. Built first for the US Navy as a fleet interceptor. Adapted by USAF as a tactical fighter and fighter-bomber. USAF received more than 2600 of the F-4s built.

Limitations of the F-4: high fuel consumption and it left a smoke trail that made it easy to track.

Advantages: big airplane, very adaptable to a variety of missions. Capable of very slow flight--an advantage in some situations. Air refuelable.

All USAF F-4s have been phased out. The Wild Weasel mission is now being flown by F-16s. I don't know if Marines have any left, but I think Navy has retired all theirs. Some foreign air forces still fly them.

If long service life and numbers built are the criteria, then F-4 has to be considered the most successful of the early post supersonic designs.

But the F-100 was also built in large numbers.

The F-100 series has one feature I like--simplicity. It was the last first-line fighter to carry a price tag under a million dollars. USAF bought over 2600 of them and flew them in several missions. First Wild Weasels were modified F-100Fs. Early F-100s were not air refuelable, but all later versions were.

The F-101 served well in two missions--reconaissance and interceptor. Just under 900 were delivered all to USAF. There was a tactical fighter version but most were converted to reconaissance.

The F-102 was an interim interceptor that never achieved the performance desired. But 1,000 were delivered and it was a workhorse for many years. If you consider the superior F-106 to be part of the same design, about 1330 of them were built.

F-104 was an awesome performer but a fuel hog with relatively short legs. Good NATO fighter. Just under a thousand built.

F-105 proved to be a very solid design, a good performer at lower altitudes. It was versatile. Just under 800.

My own favorite Century series fighter is the F-106 Delta Dart. It proved a victim of timing. It was ready for delivery as the budget was being trimmed severely. So only 330 or so were delivered and nearly all were deployed as interceptors.

It was faster than the F-4 and more meneuverable, and had longer range. Later modifications included a better canopy for pilot visibility, air refueling and an internal 20 mm Vulcan cannon. No attempt was ever made to adapt it to a ground strike role, but it could have been used as an air superiority fighter.

It's design is similar in many respects to the Swedish Viggen and French Mirage. The Delta Dart's undoing proved to be its low production run. Also the design was too limited and unreliable in its early ears.

But it was a very promising design.

When the Century series was in production the goals were ambitious. Many of those goals were victims of budgeting, however. So it falls on the F-4 to bridge the resulting gap.

Answer 1

If you include the F4, its the hands down winner in the catagory. Both the navy and air force used them as primary fighters and fighter bombers for nearly 20 years. They are the most produced Western fighters in the jet age and served with something like 20 air forces. Several air forces (including ours F4G wild weasle) still fly them as primary air superiority fighters (Iran has a mix of F4's, F5's and F14's).

If you don't include F4, then it has to go to the F104 Starfighter, and the only reason is production. Most of the Nato countries flew F104 as their primary fighter up until the F16 came online. The F104 was a dog of a plane and killed many aircrews due to fast and furious landing speeds.

In my personal opinion, the best of the true century fighters was the F100 Super Saber. It was the most flexible aircraft in inventory during all the the 60's. Being a Mach 1 airframe, it lacked the flash of the other fighters.

Answer 2

AND THE WINNER IS THE F-4 PHANTOM SERIES. The reason is simple. The Navy flew this version and this means it could land on carriers. A carrier bird has advantages over land locked birds all the time. They can go where land based fighters can not. This gives them a better range in a dogfight and the act of surprise in popping up where they normally shouldn't be. It also meant the enemy had to watch the sea closely. Land based fighters are limited by there home base of operations and refuelers.

Answer 3

Has to be the F-4 all the way. The F-4 is still in service today and is performing wild weasel stuff. It is also still used by many foreign countries.

Answer 4

Definitely the F-110 Phantom II (F4 Series)
Why?

Preformance:

Max Level Speed at altitude: 1,430 mph (2,300 km/h) at 36,000 ft (10,975 m), Mach 2.17
at sea level: 905 mph (1,450 km/h), Mach 1.19

Initial Climb Rate 28,000 ft (8,535 m ) / min
Service Ceiling 58,750 ft (17,905 m)
Range typical: 1,720 nm (3,185 km)
ferry: 2,000 nm (3,700 km)


Armament:
Gun: one 20-mm M61A1 Vulcan cannon (640 rds)

Stations: seven external hardpoints

Air-to-Air Missiles: AIM-120 AMRAAM, AIM-7 Sparrow, AIM-9 Sidewinder, Sky Flash

Air-to-Surface Missiles: AGM-65 Maverick, AGM-88 HARM, AGM-12 Bullpup

Bombs: GBU-16 Paveway LGB, Mk 82/83/84 GP, cluster

And it also had ECM pods.

Case closed.
(I know a little about aircraft, I serve in a CAV/Aviation unit, so i read up on stuff like this sometimes.)

Additional-----By the way, not sure if you knew about this website, but i do all my research on www.aerospaceweb.org
Its were the above information came from. Enjoy. :)

Answer 5

My Choice is the F-105D Thunderchief; or "Thud" as it was called. Excellent Fighter Bomber and the workhorse of the Vietnam era bombing campaigns and the first plane to take the role of Wild Weasel (F-105G) and armed with the AGM-45 Shrike Missile.

General characteristics
Crew: 1
Payload: 14,000 lb (6,700 kg) of weapons
Length: 64 ft 4.75 in (19.63 m)
Wingspan: 34 ft 11.25 in (10.65 m)
Height: 19 ft 8 in (5.99 m)
Wing area: 385 ft² (35.76 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 65A005.5 root, NACA 65A003.7 tip
Empty weight: 27,500 lb (12,470 kg)
Loaded weight: 35,637 lb (16,165 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 52,546 lb (23,834 kg)
Powerplant: 1× Pratt & Whitney J75-P-19W afterburning turbojet, 26,500 lbf (118 kN) with afterburning and water injection
* Zero-lift drag coefficient: 0.0173
Drag area: 6.65 ft² (0.62 m²)
Aspect ratio: 3.16

Performance
Maximum speed: Mach 2.08 (1,372 mph, 2,208 km/h) at 36,000 ft (11,000 m)
Combat radius: 780 mi (680 nm, 1,250 km)
Ferry range: 2,210 mi (1,920 nm, 3,550 km)
Service ceiling: 48,500 ft (14,800 m)
Rate of climb: 38,500 ft/min (195 m/s)
Wing loading: 93 lb/ft² (452 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.74
Lift-to-drag ratio: 10.4
Time to altitude: 1.7 min to 35,000 ft (11,000 m)

Armament
1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M61 Vulcan cannon, 1,028 rounds
Up to 14,000 lb (6350 kg) of ordnance, including conventional and nuclear bombs, and AIM-9 Sidewinder and AGM-12 Bullpup missiles, in the bomb bay and on five external hardpoints.

Avionics
NASARR R-14A radar
AN/ASG-19 Thunderstick fire-control system
AN/ARN-85 LORAN (AN/ARN-92 in Thunderstick II-modified aircraft