First-generation jet fighter

The Me 262, the first jet fighter and the most well-known of WWII

Aircraft classified as first generation jet fighters^[1] are the first attempts at creation of military aircraft using jet engines. A few were developed during the closing days of World War II and saw very limited combat operations. The generation can be split into two broad groups, slower jets with straight wings common to World War II era fighters such as the Me 262 and the Meteor, and mature swept-wing first-generation fighters such as the F-86 used in the Korean War which are controllable at near sonic, and controllable in a dive at supersonic speeds.

The "generations" of fighter aircraft are a relatively modern concept based on claims for "Fifth Generation". They are rough categories based on similar designs and do not correspond to a rigid definition. While most of the first-generation fighters were developed during World War II and the postwar period, both straight-winged attack low-subsonic jets such as the A-10 Warthog and swept-wing high-subsonic speed jets such as the A-7 Corsair II continued to be designed mostly in trainer and attack fighter roles with secondary air-air combat capabilities.

World War II era

The Imperial Japanese Navy's 1945 Nakajima J9Y Kikka.

The initial attempts were straight-winged subsonic planes based heavily on the design concepts that had worked well in piston-powered aircraft. Some of these fighters were tested using piston engines to evaluate the airframes before the jets to power them were available or reliable enough to sustain flight.^[2]

The first operational turbojet aircraft, the He 178, was a German design that first flew in 1939. It was used as the basis of the later He 280, a design passed over for the Me 262. A similar British design, the Gloster E.28/39 had provisions for some armament, but the guns were not fitted on either prototype.

The Bell P-59 Airacomet was the first American jet fighter to be put into service. It was never used in combat, as was mainly useful as an experimental fighter as its performance was inferior to the piston-engined North American P-51 Mustang which could reach higher top speeds and had a much greater range.

Japan had some experimental models, such as the Nakajima J9Y Kikka, but none saw operational use.^[3]

Aircraft that entered service

The plans for the first operational jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe were drawn up in 1939, and the airplane first flew under jet power in 1942.^[4] The Me 262 was not operational until 1944,^[4] and its effectiveness was crippled by the deteriorating infrastructure of Nazi Germany; the advanced materials needed for its engines were in short supply. Although the Me 262 is often classified as an early straight-wing design, it actually incorporates some features of a slightly "swept wing" design, as it had a leading edge sweep of only 18.5°, too slight to achieve any significant advantage in increasing the critical Mach number, the speed at which it can fly without encountering control problems due to compressibility.^[5] Sweep was added after the initial design of the aircraft for balance reasons, when the engines proved heavier than originally expected, primarily to position the center of lift properly relative to the center of mass. There was originally a 35° sweep, proposed by Adolph Busemann, which was not adopted.^[6]

World War II ended before jet fighters were common. The United States and the United Kingdom also had jet fighters operational before the end of the war. The British Gloster Meteor twin-engined high speed fighter was used to intercept Germany's V-1 flying bombs missiles over the British Isles and not deployed for combat over Europe until 1945 but still kept away from occupied territory to prevent the technology being picked up by the Germans or Soviets. By 1946 16 RAF squadrons were equipped with Meteors. The American Lockheed P-80 entered service in the closing phases of the war and was deployed to Europe but arrived too late to see any combat.

The earliest jet fighters usually did not carry radar — except for the handful of Me 262B-1a/U1 jet night fighters built and deployed in 1944-45 — or other sophisticated avionics and had similar equipment to the piston-engined counterparts used during the war. Machine guns and cannon were the primary armament, though the Me 262 also used air-to-air rockets against Allied bomber formations and could carry unguided bombs, with many follow-on designs in development on paper or in wind tunnels as the war ended (especially in Germany), like the Focke-Wulf Ta 183.

The significant operational aircraft in this group include:

Aircraft	Primary Builder	Number built	First flight	Service life	Length m	Wingspan m	Wing area sq. m	Empty weight	Max takeoff weight	Max Speed km/h	Range km	Celling m	Engines × Thrust
Me 262	Nazi Germany	1,430	1941	1944-1951	10.60	12.60	21.70	3,795 kg	7,130 kg	900	1,050	11,450	2 × 8.8 kN
He 162	Nazi Germany	~320	1944	1945	9.05	7.20	11.16	1,660 kg	2,800 kg	905	975	12,000	1 × 7.85 kN
Gloster Meteor	United Kingdom	3,947	1943	1944-1980s	13.59	11.32	32.52	4,846 kg	~7,121 kg	965	965	13,100	2 × 15.6 kN

Other aircraft were built or developed during the war, did not see combat. Many entered general service in the immediate post-war years. Examples include:

Aircraft	Primary Builder	Number built	First flight	Service life	Length m	Wingspan m	Wing area sq. m	Empty weight	Max takeoff weight	Max Speed km/h	Range km	Celling m	Engines × Thrust
Dassault Ouragan	France	Unknown	1949	1952-1980s	10.73	13.16	23.80	4,142 kg	7,900 kg	940	920	13,000	1 × 22.2 kN
DH.100 Vampire	United Kingdom	3,268	1943	1945-1979	9.37	11.58	24.34	3,304 kg	5,620 kg	882	1,960	13,045	1 × 14.90 kN
Sea Hawk	United Kingdom	542	1947	1953-1983	12.09	11.89	25.83	4,208 kg	7,325 kg	965	770	13,564	1 × 23.1 kN
Supermarine Attacker	United Kingdom	185	1946	1951-1964	11.43	11.25	21.0	3,826 kg	~5,539 kg	950	950	13,716	1 × 22.0 kN
Supermarine Swift	United Kingdom	197	1948	1952-1970s	12.88	9.85	30.50	6,094 kg	9,381 kg	1,148	1,014	13,960	1 × 31.9 kN/42.0 kN
P-59B	United States	66	1944	1944-1945	11.84	13.87	35.86	3,704 kg	6,214 kg	665	604	14,080	2 × 8.9 kN
P-80	United States	1,715	1944	1944-1970s	10.49	11.81	22.07	3,819 kg	7,646 kg	965	1,930	14,000	1 × 24.0 kN
FH Phantom	United States	62	1945	1947-1954	11.35	12.42	25.60	3,031 kg	5,459 kg	771	1,120	12,525	2 × 7.1 kN
FR-1	United States	71	1944	1945-1947	12.19	12.19	25.60	3,488 kg	~5,285 kg	444/650	2,610	13,137	1 × 7.1 kN and 1 × 1,350 hp piston
MiG-9 'Fargo'	Soviet Union	610	1946	1948-?	9.75	10.00	18.20	3,350 kg	~5,000 kg	915	800	13,500	2 × 7.8 kN
Yak-15 'Feather'	Soviet Union	280	1946	1947-?	8.70	9.20	14.85	1,852 kg	~2,638 kg	786	510+	12,000	1 × 8.8 kN
Yak-17 'Feather'	Soviet Union	430	1947	1948-1960s	8.70	9.20	14.90	2,890 kg	3,240 kg	748	395	12,750	1 × 8.9 kN

Note:

The Russian aircraft were based heavily on British engines (including a reverse-engineered Rolls-Royce Nene engine) and German designs, and were developed after the end of World War II.^[7] The French Ouragan was also a design of the late 1940s rather than a wartime effort.

Hybrid

Early jet engines had poor acceleration, and the FR Fireball was a mixed-propulsion aircraft with a propeller in front and a jet engine in the back designed for use on an aircraft carrier. The Russian Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250 and Sukhoi Su-5 were similar concepts but used a motorjet instead of a turbojet and were not designed for carrier use.

Further experiments after the war with mixed propulsion involving at least one turboprop powerplant included the XF2R Dark Shark and the XF-84H Thunderscreech, one of the loudest aircraft ever flown.^[8] The Thunderscreech, however, was a much later design, being a contemporary of the clearly second generation F-104 Starfighter. None of these hybrid-propulsion planes saw combat or major use, though the Fireball was used operationally for two years.

Post-World War II

A MiG-15 in Polish markings

After World War II, some additional aircraft were built using refinements of the ideas used in the first attempts. Some of these included a swept wing and some could break the sound barrier in a dive, but almost all of them lacked the thrust to do so in level flight. Radar was used in dedicated interceptors and night fighters but early models required a dedicated radar operator. These aircraft are mostly associated with the Korean War. Some interceptor designs, such as the F-94 used rockets such as the Mk 4/Mk 40 Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket as their primary weapon instead of guns.

Interceptors/Night fighters

Aircraft	Primary Builder	Number built	First flight	Service life	Length m	Wingspan m	Wing area sq. m	Empty weight	Max takeoff weight	Max Speed km/h	Range km	Celling m	Engines × Thrust
Avro CF-100	Canada	692	1950	1952-1981	16.50	17.40	54.9	10,500 kg	16,329 kg	888	3,200	13,700	2 × 32.5 kN
DH 112 Venom	United Kingdom	1,431	1949	1952-1983	9.70	12.70	25.9	4,202 kg	~7,000 kg	1,030	1,730	12,000	1 × 21.6 kN
DH Sea Venom	United Kingdom	419	1951	195?-1970	11.15	13.06	25.9		7,167 kg	927	1,135	12,040	1 × 23.6 kN
Yak-25 'Flashlight'	Soviet Union	638	1952	1955-1967	15.67	10.94	28.94	5,675 kg	9,450 kg	1,090	2,700	15,200	2 × 23.0 kN
F-86D Sabre	United States	2,847	1949	195?-1974	12.27	11.31		6,132 kg	9,060 kg	1,115	531+	15,163	1 × 24.1 kN/33.4 kN
F-89 Scorpion	United States	1,052	1948	1950-1969	16.40	18.20	56.30	11,428 kg	19,161 kg	1,022	2,200	15,000	2 × 24.26 kN/32.11 kN
F-94 Starfire	United States	885	1949	1950-1960	13.60	12.90	21.63	5,764 kg	10,970 kg	1,030	2,050	15,670	1 × 28.2 kN/38.9 kN
F3D Skyknight	United States	265	1948	1951-1970	13.84	15.25	37.16	8,237 kg	12,180 kg	909	1,931	11,645	2 × 15.98 kN

Note: Thrust: Dry/Afterburner

Fighter-bombers

Aircraft	Primary Builder	Number built	First flight	Service life	Length m	Wingspan m	Wing area sq. m	Empty weight	Max takeoff weight	Max Speed km/h	Range km	Celling m	Engines × Thrust
F9F Panther	United States	1,382	1947	1949-1969	11.30	11.60	23.00	4,220 kg	16,450 kg	925	2,100	13,600	1 × 26.5 kN
F-84 Thunderjet	United States	7,524	1946	1947-1991	11.60	11.107	24.00	5,200 kg	8,200 kg	1,000	1,600	12,350	1 × 24.7 kN
F-84F Thunderstreak	United States	3,428	1950	1954-1991	13.23	10.25	30	5,200 kg	12,701 kg	1,119	1,304	14,000	1 × 32.2 kN
Gloster Javelin	United Kingdom	436	1951	1956-1968	17.15	15.85	86.00	10,886 kg	19,580 kg	1,140	1,530	15,865	2 × 54 kN
MD.452 Mystère	France	171	1951	1954-1963	11.70	13.10	30.3	5,225 kg	7,475 kg	1,060	885	15,250	1 × 29.4 kN
MD.454 Mystère IV	France	411	1952	1953-1980s	12.89	11.12	32.06	5,860 kg	9,500 kg	1,110	915	15,000	1 × 34.32 kN
Saab 21R	Sweden	64	1947	1950-1956	10.45	11.37		3,200 kg	5,000 kg	800	720	12,000	1 × 13.8 kN

Note: Thrust: Dry/Afterburner

Air superiority fighters

Many of these also had fighter-bomber variants.

Aircraft	Primary Builder	Number built	First flight	Service life	Length m	Wingspan m	Wing area sq. m	Empty weight	Max takeoff weight	Max Speed km/h	Range km	Celling m	Engines × Thrust
F-86 Sabre	United States	9,860	1947	1949-1994	11.40	11.30	29.11	5,046 kg	8,234 kg	1,106	2,454	15,100	1 × 26.3 kN
FJ-1 Fury	United States	31	1946	1947-1953	10.48	11.63	20.50	8,843 kg	~15,118 kg	880	2,407	9,753	1 × 17.8 kN
FJ-2/3 Fury	United States	741	1951	1954-1962	11.45	11.31	26.70	5,353 kg	8,523 kg	1,088	1,593	14,300	1 × 26.7 kN
FJ-4 Fury	United States	374	1954	1954-1960s	11.10	11.90	31.46	6,000 kg	10,750 kg	1,090	3,250	14,300	1 × 34.0 kN
F2H Banshee	United States	895	1947	1948-1962	14.68	12.73	27.30	5,980 kg	11,437 kg	933	2,760	14,205	2 × 14.5 kN
F3H Demon	United States	519	1951	1956-1964	17.98	10.76	48.21	10,040 kg	~15,377 kg	1,152	1,899	10,683	1 × 43.25 kN/65.77 kN
F6U Pirate	United States	33	1946	1946-1950	11.46	10.00	18.9	3,320 kg	5,850 kg	959	1,880	14,100	1 × 14.0 kN/18.78 kN
F-9 Cougar	United States	1,392	1948	1951-1959	12.85	10.51	31.30	5,382 kg	11,232 kg	1,041	1,690	12,800	1 × 38.0 kN
F7U Cutlass	United States	320	1951	1956-1964	12.59	12.10	46.10	8,260 kg	14,353 kg	1,122	1,482	12,375	2 × 20 kN/27 kN
DH.100 Vampire	United Kingdom	3,268	1943	1945-1979	9.37	11.58	24.34	3,304 kg	5,620 kg	882	1,960	13,045	1 × 14.90 kN
DH 112 Venom	United Kingdom	1,431	1949	1952-1983	9.70	12.70	25.9	4,202 kg	~7,000 kg	1,030	1,730	12,000	1 × 21.6 kN
Sea Vixen	United Kingdom	145	1951	1959-1972	16.94	15.54	60.20	12,680 kg	18,860 kg	1,110	1,270	14,600	2 × 50.0 kN
Hawker Hunter	United Kingdom	1,972	1951	1956–Present	14.00	10.26	32.42	6,405 kg	24,600 kg	1,150	3,060	15,240	1 × 45.13 kN
CAC Sabre	Australia	112	1953	1954-1982	11.43	11.30	28.1	5,443 kg	9,256 kg	1,100	1,850	15,850	1 × 33.4 kN
Canadair Sabre	Canada	1,815	1950	1950-1980	11.43	11.32		4,816 kg	7,965 kg	1,142	2,044	16,460	1 × 32.36 kN
Saab 29 Tunnan	Sweden	661	1948	1950-1976	11.00	11.23	24.15	4,845 kg	8,375 kg	1,060	1,100	15,500	1 × 27.0 kN
Saab 32 Lansen	Sweden	450	1952	1956-1997	14.94	13.00	37.4	7,500 kg	13,500 kg	1,200	2,000	15,000	1 × 47.0 kN/65.3 kN
La-15 'Fantail'	Soviet Union	235	1948	1949-1953	9.55	8.83		2,575 kg	~3,850 kg	1,007	1,145	13,500	1 × 15.59 kN
MiG-15 'Fagot'	Soviet Union	18,000	1947	1949–Present	10.08	10.08	20.60	3,630 kg	6,105 kg	1,059	1,240	15,500	1 × 26.5 kN
MiG-17 'Fresco'	Soviet Union	11,060	1950	1952–Present	11.26	9.63	22.6	3,919 kg	6,069 kg	1,145	2,060	16,600	1 × 22.5 kN/33.8 kN
Yak-23 'Flora'	Soviet Union	310	1947	1949-1956	8.12	8.73	13.50	1,980 kg		923	1,400	14,800	1 × 15.6 kN
Shenyang J-5	People's Republic of China	1,820	1956	1956-1992	11.09	9.63	22.60	4,151 kg		1,130	1,424	16,600	1 × 22.5 kN/33.8 kN

Cancelled fighters

A notable post-war fighter that was never used operationally was the FMA IAe 33 Pulqui II, a prototype fighter built in Argentina. The Pulqui II was designed by a team which included former German engineers led by Kurt Tank and was based on initial designs for the Focke-Wulf Ta 183, the proposed successor to the Me 262. The Pulqui II itself was a successor to the I.Ae. 27 Pulqui I, a prototype jet fighter developed in Argentina by Emile Dewoitine in the late 1940s and the first of its type to fly in South America.

The End of the First Generation

By the 1950s, the next major group of fighter aircraft were planes that used air-to-air missiles as their primary armament and could routinely exceed the speed of sound in level flight. First-generation fighters were limited to engagements in visual range, and the expected performance of new missiles, like the AIM-7 Sparrow, with semi-active radar homing, forced changes in aircraft design.

There is not a bright, clearly defined line between first- and second-generation fighters, and some early second-generation fighters, such as the F-8 Crusader, still had guns as their primary armament. Infrared-guided or so-called "heat-seeking" missiles such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder and early beam-riding missiles like the Kaliningrad K-5 were used on late first-generation aircraft.

Experimental first-generation jet fighters

Northrop XP-79

The Northrop XP-79 flying wing was an unusual aircraft that only flew once, resulting in the death of the pilot. It was originally designed as a rocket powered aircraft but later used turbojets. The pilot was given a prone flying position.

Parasite Fighters

For more details on this topic, see Parasite aircraft.

Early jet fighters did not have the range to escort bombers all the way to the target and back, the same problem that had beset the USAAF during the early part of the daylight bombing campaigns of World War II. Having the bomber carry a fighter as well as turrets to defend itself led to some unusual designs, none of which were implemented.

XF-85 Goblin, carried in the bomb bay.
FICON project using the F-84

Aircraft still in use

A few of the aircraft from this generation are still in use by the air forces of smaller nations, typically in the ground attack role and not as fighters. A notable mention of this is the Shenyang J-5, a Chinese aircraft developed from the MiG-17, which is used by North Korea in the ground attack role and in other countries as a trainer.

References

↑ Aerospaceweb.org | Ask Us - Fighter Generations
↑ Radinger, Will and Schick Walter. Me262 (in German). Berlin: Avantic Verlag GmbH, 1996. ISBN 3-925505-21-0, page 23
↑
1. Francillon, Réne J. Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 1970 (2nd edition 1979). ISBN 0-370-30251-6.
1 2 Genesis Of the Me262
↑ Loftin, L.K. Jr. Quest for Performance: The Evolution of Modern Aircraft. NASA SP-468. Retrieved: 22 April 2006.
↑ Christopher, John. The Race for Hitler's X-Planes (History Press, The Mill, Gloucestershire, 2013, p.48.
↑ Early Soviet Jet Fighter Development
↑
1. Knaack, Marcelle Size. Encyclopedia of U.S. Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems: Volume 1 Post-World War II Fighters 1945–1973. Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1978. ISBN 0-912799-59-5.

Jet fighter generations

First generation (1942–1950) Second generation (1950–1960) Third generation (1960–1975) Fourth generation (1975–2005) Fifth generation (2005–2025) Sixth generation (proposed)

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