Fighter jets are probably the most iconic, and bad ass, weapon in any nation's military.
They patrol the skies like giant predatory birds, screaming down onto their targets from
out of the blue, or lurking unseen miles away like a deadly assassin.
They are loud, powerful, and some are on the bleeding edge of technology itself- so its
no surprise that their history and development is filled with amazing facts you probably
never heard of.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show- today we're taking a look
at 50 surprising facts you didn't know about fighter jets.
50.
The F4 Phantom, developed by the United States, was nicknamed the “World's Leading Distributor
of MiG Parts” because it destroyed so many MiG fighters in combat around the world.
49.
After the terror attacks of 9/11, the US Air Force dispatched combat air patrols to guard
from further attacks.
Yet before the Air Force could spin up combat-ready jets, Air National Guard fighters had already
taken to the skies- without any missiles or live ammunition.
These brave pilots knew that further attacks could be imminent and people needed protection
right now- so they committed to crashing their fighters into any hijacked planes as the only
means of taking them down.
48.
Though not technically using a fighter jet, this one's still too cool to leave out.
During WWII Russian fighter pilot and “Hero of the Soviet Union” T. Kuznetsov was shot
down in enemy territory.
When the German pilot landed, possibly to look for survivors or souvenirs from Kuznetsov's
wreck, Kuznetsov stole the German plane and flew it home, narrowly avoiding being shot
down by his own countrymen!
47.
In 1989 a Soviet pilot ejected from a perfectly working MIG 23 thinking the plane's engine
had failed.
The unpiloted plane instead flew over 560 miles on its own, crossing Germany and eventually
running out of fuel and crashing into a house in Belgium where it killed one teenager.
46.
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was so fast the designers told its pilots to not even worry
about evasive maneuvers- they simply told them to put the pedal to the metal and accelerate
and out-fly any threat to include missiles.
45.
The SR-71's designers were probably so confident in their plane's abilities because although
its true top speed is still classified, one of its pilots wrote in his book 'The Untouchables'
that he once evaded an anti-air missile by flying at an astonishing Mach 3.5.
44.
Moving at three times the speed of sound and flying at 85,000 feet, the SR-71 existed before
GPS and thus used an onboard camera that looked into space and used the position of the stars
above to navigate accurately.
Because it sat behind the pilot, its navigation system was officially designated R2-D2.
43.
The SR-71 is still the fastest plane ever created, and first took flight for the US
Air Force in 1964.
NASA retired its last model in 1999.
42.
Over 4,000 missiles were fired at the SR-71 during its lifetime, and not a single one
ever hit- the plane was just too fast.
41.
The plane required a large amount of titanium to construct, so the CIA created fake companies
around the world and bought the metal from the USSR which was the biggest supplier at
the time- and both the US's enemy and the number 1 target of SR-71 missions!
40.
The Lockheed U-2, another of its famed spy planes and progenitor to the SR-71, first
took flight in 1955 and flew at 70,000 feet- out of reach of both missiles and radar in
use by the Soviet Union at the time.
39.
The plane was rejected by the US Air Force because of its non-traditional landing gear
which made the plane difficult to land.
The CIA saw the potential for this untouchable aircraft though and immediately moved forward
with the project.
38.
U2 pilots flew so high that they had to wear space suits which limited their vision and
made the plane difficult to land.
A chase car was used instead to call out altitudes and help the pilots land.
37.
On May 1, 1960, it was revealed that the Soviet Union had indeed been able to track U2 planes-
but their missiles weren't good enough to hit them for years.
On that day pilot Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union, and the US government
immediately contracted Lockheed to build a better spy plane- the SR-71.
36.
Every retired F-14 Tomcat that the United States has in inventory is being shredded
to prevent spare parts reaching Iran, who still fly F-14s sold to them by the US before
the revolution in the 70s.
35.
The US-made F-15 Eagle has, across all air forces it serves in, a air-to-air combat record
of 104 kills and 0 losses.
No air superiority versions of the F-15 have ever been shot down by enemy forces.
34.
In 1983 an Israeli pilot successfully landed his F-15 with only one wing intact, not realizing
the extent of the damage his plane had suffered.
After he stated that if he had known he would have ejected from the aircraft.
33.
The F-15 can also add the only satellite kill in history to its impressive record.
During an anti-satellite weapon test, USAF pilot Major Wilbert D. Pearson fired an anti-satellite
missile at a retired solar observatory satellite in orbit 345 miles above, destroying it.
32.
Breaking the sound barrier was thought impossible by many, who stated that doing so was not
just physically impossible but would destroy any aircraft attempting to fly so fast- yet
on October 14th, 1947 US pilot Chuck Yeager did exactly that, flying at Mach 1.07 in the
experimental X-1 jet.
31.
Nobody expected Chuck Yeager or his aircraft to survive the attempt to break the sound
barrier, and the answer to many of the technical challenges that plagued the X-1 program was
simply “Yeager better have paid up his insurance”.
30.
Two days before his test flight, Yeager fell off a horse and broke two of his ribs.
Afraid he would be grounded and unable to fly, Yeager went to a civilian doctor who
simply taped up his ribs and kept the injury secret.
He was in so much pain on the day of his flight that he couldn't seal the X-1s hatch by himself
and had to be helped by a fellow pilot who knew of the injury.
29.
In June 1974, while President Nixon was on his way to a scheduled stop in Syria, Syrian
fighter jets intercepted Air Force One to act as escorts.
Air Force One's crew however had not been informed and the plane took evasive actions
to include a steep dive.
28.
The F-22 is the world's first Fifth Generation Aircraft, and as such was prone to many bugs
when first taking to the skies.
Taking off from Hawaii, the first time an F-22 crossed the international date line it
had a massive computer failure and had to turn back and land.
27.
Though it first became operational in the early 2000s, F-22s didn't see combat until
2014 when in response to the deployment of anti-air missile systems and fighter jets
in the region by Russia, F-22s began to escort coalition aircraft.
Ensuring the safety of other aircraft, the high-tech Raptors also used their electronic
warfare suites to gather data on Russian anti-air systems.
26.
The F-22 has a range of 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers), and can cruise at 1,500 miles
(2414 kilometers) an hour without afterburners.
25.
The F-22 has a radar cross-section the size of a bumblebee while in flight and its weapons
bay doors are closed, while its powerful onboard sensors allow the aircraft to target and destroy
enemies from Beyond Visual Range well before it is detected.
24.
In exercises against friendly nations such as Britain and France, F-22s overwhelmingly
decimated Rafael and Typhoon fighter jets by striking at them from Beyond Visual Range
and before they could be detected.
23.
When the parameters of those exercises were redrawn however and F-22s were forced to fight
at close quarters, French Rafael and British Typhoon jets broke even or even outgunned
their F-22 counterparts.
This is because the F-22 is designed to be an assassin, not a traditional fighter, and
would rely on its stealth, speed and high-tech sensors to strike before being seen.
22.
During testing an F-22 dropped a GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition from 50,000 feet and
while cruising at Mach 1.5- the bomb hit a moving target 24 miles away.
21.
The US Air Force typically tests the quality of its new aircraft by pitting them against
current aircraft.
In 2006 the F-22 was pitted against the F-15 and maintained a kill ratio of 108:0- highest
kill ratio of a new aircraft versus current aircraft ever achieved.
20.
The F-22 is the only aircraft in the world able to supercruise at supersonic speeds with
full weapons loadout and without using fuel-inefficient afterburners.
19.
The F-22 inspired the development of China's Chengdu-20 and Russia's Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA
as a countermeasure.
Of the two, defense analysts around the world only ever considered the Sukhoi T-50 as serious
competition, but with the recent announcement that Russia was indefinitely postponing its
5th generation aircraft program there seems to be no real competitor in the immediate
future for the Raptor.
18.
In 1956 due to its high speed, an F11 shot itself because it was faster than its own
bullets.
17.
The F-35 is the US's second Fifth Generation Aircraft, and the total cost of development
is so far 7 times greater than that of the International Space Station.
16.
The Russian-built Su-35 is the pinnacle of Russian Fourth Generation Fighter jets, and
also the most maneuverable aircraft in the world.
It uses thrust vectoring engines much like the F-22, but with a greater range and the
ability to vector the nozzles of its twin engines in different directions.
Its capable of acrobatic maneuvers the F-22 can't match.
15.
The Su-35's incredible thrust-vectoring capabilities are not just for impressing audiences at airshows-
they also allow the Su-35 to achieve very high angles of attack, moving in one direction
while pointing its nose in another which lets it more easily track and target evading targets.
This makes the Su-35 one of the most deadly dogfighters ever created.
14.
An Su-35's thrust vectoring may make it lethal when targeting an enemy plane, but leaves
it in a very low speed and low energy state that makes it easy prey for other enemy fighters
if not protected by its wingman.
13.
Though not a stealth aircraft, the Su-35's radar-absorbent materials give it a radar
cross section between one and three meters, reducing the range it can be detected and
targeted.
12.
Su-35 pilots use advanced flight helmets that can automatically target and launch an R-74
infrared-guided missile by the pilot simply looking through a helm-mounted optical sight
at an enemy plane up to sixty degrees away from where the plane is pointed.
11.
Utilizing the IRBIS-E passive electronically scanned array radar, an Su-35 can track up
to thirty targets with a radar cross section of three meters up to 250 miles away, and
targets with cross-sections as small as .1 meters from fifty miles away.
This radar however is easier to detect and jam than the AESA radars used by the West.
10.
The German-made Me 262 was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft,
and its pilots scored 542 kills on allied aircraft.
9.
During operational trials, Me 262s scored 19 kills against allied aircraft versus the
loss of 6 Me 262s- immediately making it Germany's top fighter.
8.
Despite its effectiveness though, the Me 262 was plagued by too much bureaucratic oversight
which postponed its development and manufacture until late in the war when materials were
short and Germany's manufacturing base was under constant attack by the allies.
Had the jet been cleared for development earlier, the outcome of the war may have been much
different.
7.
The F-35 is not only the most expensive fighter ever built, it is also made up of 300,000
separate parts made by 1,500 suppliers from all over the world.
6.
Despite being the most high-tech aircraft in the world, during development the F-35
had serious issues with its oxygen generation and delivery systems, potentially putting
the pilot's life at risk.
5.
The F-35's flight systems are the most advanced in the world, and all together its Electronic
Warfare, Radar, Communication, Navigation and Identification, Electro-Optical Targeting,
and Distributed Aperture System all use over 8 million lines of code- more than any other
plane in the air.
4.
Developed specifically for the F-35, its Pratt & Whitney F135 engine is an afterburning turbofan
capable of generating 41,000 pounds of thrust.
3.
With the addition of a lift fan to the front of the aircraft and a vectoring duct to the
engine, the F-35 is the only fifth-generation aircraft ever designed that can land vertically.
2.
Despite its own impressive capabilities, the F-35 is even more impressive in its ability
to support other aircraft.
Its powerful sensor fusion and information distribution capabilities makes each F-35
a miniature AWACS, pumping out targeting information to all friendly aircraft within range.
The F-35 is even able to guide in missiles fired by other, non-stealth aircraft to their
targets!
1.
During World War II, in order to hide the development of their radar and explain their
ability to detect and target German planes from such long distances, British pilots started
a rumor that carrots give great night vision.
German pilots immediately started eating large amounts of carrots.
What other incredible or amazing facts about fighter jets do you know of?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called 50 Surprising Facts About Cold War!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!”