The Sukhoi Su-57 «Felon» is a twin-engine fifth-generation multirole fighter and the first aircraft designed with stealth technology to enter service with the Russian armed forces. It grew out of the PAK FA programme — the Russian acronym…
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat was a two-seat, twin-engine, variable-geometry carrier fighter built for one very specific job: to hold off, hundreds of kilometres from the carrier, the Soviet bombers that threatened to swamp an entire naval force…
The Sukhoi Su-27, given the NATO reporting name "Flanker", is the twin-engine heavy fighter with which the Soviet Union set out to answer, aircraft for aircraft, the American generation led by the F-15 Eagle and the F-14 Tomcat. Conceived…
The F-22 Raptor, built by Lockheed Martin together with Boeing, is an American twin-engine, all-weather supersonic stealth fighter built above all for air superiority, though it also carries ground attack, electronic warfare and signals…
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a carrier-capable, supersonic, twin-engined, all-weather combat aircraft conceived as both a fighter and a ground-attack machine, hence the dual F/A designation. It was designed by McDonnell Douglas…
The Hawker Siddeley Harrier was the first attack and reconnaissance aircraft with vertical or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) capability to reach genuine operational service, and the only design of its kind to survive the wave of…
The Tupolev Tu-95 — "Bear" in NATO parlance — is a Soviet four-turboprop heavy strategic bomber, conceived to reach targets in the United States without refuelling and capable of carrying nuclear weapons. It first flew on 12 November 1952,…
The Lockheed U-2 is a high-altitude strategic reconnaissance aircraft: a single-seater with enormously long, narrow wings, one jet engine and a structure pared down to the lightest airframe its designers could get away with, conceived in…
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is a subsonic, nuclear-capable stealth strategic bomber flown exclusively by the United States Air Force. It is a pure flying wing — no distinct fuselage, no tail — of lambda planform, powered by four…
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is the most heavily produced heavy bomber in history and, at the same time, the American four-engined bomber of the Second World War that occupies the least space in popular memory. It was born out of a job…
The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger — "shrike", the bird that impales its prey — was the Luftwaffe's second great single-seat fighter and, in the judgement of many who flew it, the finest German combat aircraft of the Second World War. It was…
The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, universally known by its "Warthog" nickname, is a single-seat, subsonic, straight-wing, twin-turbofan attack aircraft that has served with the United States Air Force since 1977. The USAF's own…