Light fighter
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- This article refers to a class of aircraft. Light infantry is sometimes referred to in this fashion in the US, see 7th Infantry Division.
A light fighter or lightweight fighter is a type of fighter aircraft with a diminutive airframe, deliberately designed to fill a performance niche based on a high power-to-weight ratio. Typically, light fighters have been dismissed by military planners as being too limited in capability, but several light fighter designs have fairly good combat records.
History
WWII
The original light fighter class developed out of a series of pre-World War II aircraft engines that delivered a high power-to-weight ratio, albeit at a low power rating. In order to make use of these engines, the aircraft carrying them would have to be made as light as possible. However, this is not always easy; some elements of a design simply cannot be scaled down. Nevertheless, there was a brief period in which there was a light-weight sweet spot, and several designs were attempted.
During the late 1930s, the French Armée de l'Air, in an attempt to modernize her fleet of aircraft, produced several light fighter designs of wooden construction that could be built more quickly than conventional designs. The most numerous of these was the Caudron C.714, which exemplified the fundamental flaws of the light fighter concept: underpowered, underarmed, and limited endurance. By contrast, its somewhat heavier contemporary, the Arsenal VG-33, proved to have excellent performance. Delivery of these designs began in early 1940, but France fell before sufficient numbers could be produced to prove the concept in combat.
The United States Army Air Corps also contracted for several light fighter designs based on the Ranger V-770 engine, a small engine that delivered up to 700 hp. Fears of an imminent massive German attack was forthcoming led to plans to build fighters designs based on the Ranger, which could be rapidly put into production. Performance of the Bell XP-77 proved uninspiring, and by the time development had progressed to testing the fear of a German attack had faded.
During the war, the Hawker Fury was developed initially as the "Tempest Light Fighter" a lightweight version of the Hawker Tempest though in practice the resulting naval Sea Fury was not significantly different in weight.
Early jets
Light fighters again became popular in during the early era of jet engine development, for much the same reasons. Jet engines scale downward quite well, and any number of very small and lightweight engines are available. Many attempts have been made to produce relatively high-performance designs using these inexpensive jets.
The Folland Gnat was a British private venture design for a light fighter.[1] Although not adopted by the UK as a fighter (but as a trainer), it did serve as a fighter for the Indian Air Force.
The NATO Light Weight Strike Fighter competition of the early 1950s led to designs such as the French SNCASE Baroudeur, Breguet Taon[2] and Dassault Étendard VI, the Italian Aeritalia G.91 and Aerfer Ariete (derived from the Aerfer Sagittario 2) and the US Northrop N-156. The competition also compared engines and selected the Bristol Siddeley Orpheus - which had been developed for the Gnat - as the winner.
In spite of losing the NATO competition, Northrop's design was offered to the USAF where is found little interest. However, the introduction of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act led to the N-156 being placed in competition with several other US designs, which it handily beat in terms of cost. Becoming the Northrop F-5 "Freedom Fighter", just under 1000 were sold worldwide, and another 1,400 of the updated Tiger II version. This makes the F-5 the most successful light fighter to date, by far.
Newer designs
Several attempts have been made to introduce newer designs in the same general performance range as the F-5, but none have been nearly as successful.
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon was originally conceived under the Lightweight Fighter program as a light fighter, but developed into a highly capable medium fighter-bomber. Robot or remote control fighter craft may usher in a new era of relatively disposable light fighters for high risk missions.