First - generation jet fighter - wikipedia First - generation jet fighter The Me 262, the first jet fighter and the most well - known of WWII First generation jet fighters 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 Meteor, and mature swept - wing first - generation fighters such as the F - 86 used in the Korean War which are controllable at transonic speeds. Contents 1 World War II era 1.1 Aircraft that entered service 1.2 Hybrid 2 Post-World War II 2.1 Interceptors / Night fighters 2.2 Fighter - bombers 2.3 Air superiority fighters 3 Cancelled fighters 4 The End of the First Generation 5 Experimental first - generation jet fighters 5.1 Northrop XP - 79 5.2 Parasite Fighters 6 Aircraft still in use 7 See also 8 References 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. The pioneering airworthy turbojet aircraft, the He 178, was a German taildragger - geared design that first flew in August 1939. It was used as the basis of the later tricycle landing geared 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. 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. The Me 262 was not operational until 1944, 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. 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. Despite its late - war debut into production, the winner of Nazi Germany 's Volksjäger light fighter competition, the Heinkel He 162 A Spatz. was just about to enter service with the Luftwaffe 's JG 1 and even the specialist unit JV 44 at the war 's end, but only very isolated engagements with Allied combat aircraft -- with JG 1 losing 13 He 162As during April 1945, ten to operational losses not involving combat ( the design was still going through its evaluation period ) and only a pair of actual losses of He 162As from aerial combat. 320 examples of the He 162A were completed by the war 's end, with hundreds more incomplete He 162A airframes in the process of manufacture. 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 unguided 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 1942 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 350 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 1942 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. The French Ouragan was also a design of the late 1940s rather than as 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. 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 Argentina FMA I.Ae. 27 Pulqui FMA I.Ae. 33 Pulqui II ( largely based on the German Ta 183 ) Canada Avro Canada CF - 103 France Aérocentre NC 1080 Sud - Ouest Espadon Italy Aerfer Ariete / Aerfer Leone / Aerfer Sagittario 2 Fiat G. 82 Japan Nakajima J9Y Nakajima Ki - 201 Nazi Germany Focke - Wulf Ta 183 Huckebein Heinkel He 280 Horten Ho 229 Messerschmitt Me P. 1101 Messerschmitt Me P. 1106 Switzerland FFA N - 20 United Kingdom Gloster E. 1 / 44 Saunders - Roe SR. A / 1 Soviet Union Alekseyev I - 211 / Alekseyev I - 215 Lavochkin La - 150 Lavochkin La - 168 Sukhoi Su - 9 ( 1946 ) Sukhoi Su - 15 ( 1949 ) Sukhoi Su - 17 ( 1949 ) Yakovlev Yak - 7R Yakovlev Yak - 19 Yakovlev Yak - 25 ( 1947 ) / Yakovlev Yak - 30 ( 1948 ) Yakovlev Yak - 50 ( 1949 ) 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 Further information : 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. See also Fighter aircraft generations List of jet aircraft of World War II References Jump up ^ Aerospaceweb.org Ask Us - Fighter Generations Jump up ^ Radinger, Will and Schick Walter. Me262 ( in German ). Berlin : Avantic Verlag GmbH, 1996. ISBN 3 - 925505 - 21 - 0, page 23 Jump up ^ # Francillon, Réne J. Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War. London : Putnam & Company Ltd., 1970 ( 2nd edition 1979 ). ISBN 0 - 370 - 30251 - 6. ^ Jump up to : Genesis Of the Me262 Jump up ^ Loftin, L.K. Jr. Quest for Performance : The Evolution of Modern Aircraft. NASA SP - 468. Retrieved : 22 April 2006. Jump up ^ Christopher, John. The Race for Hitler 's X-Planes ( History Press, The Mill, Gloucestershire, 2013, p. 48. Jump up ^ Early Soviet Jet Fighter Development Jump up ^ # 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 -- current ) Sixth generation ( proposed ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=First-generation_jet_fighter&oldid=812804538 '' Categories : Jet fighter generations Talk Contents About Wikipedia Español Français עברית Magyar 日本 語 Português Slovenščina Српски / srpski Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 29 November 2017, at 23 : 42. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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Question: when were the first jets used in war
Answer: 1944