| Earnest
Hemingway once wrote: You love a lot of things if
you live around them. But there isn't any woman and
there isn't any horse, not any before nor any after,
that is as lovely as a great airplane, And men who
love them are faithful to them even though they
leave them for others. Man has one virginity to lose
in fighters, and if it is a lovely airplane he loses
it to, there is where his heart will forever be.
While the language might not be as "socially
correct" as it once was, the above sentiment is
familiar to those who own and fly their own
fighters. The airplanes pictured here are the
fuel-guzzling, ear-splitting, fire breathers of the
aviation world and as such, they can also be more
fun to fly than any aircraft in the world. To keep
an airplane like this airworthy requires fastidious
maintenance procedures and lots of spare parts.
Their pilots, as you'd expect, must maintain a high
level of proficiency and knowledge. The rewards for
these efforts? The chance for us to see and hear
them as they rip the sky asunder.
Several of the types pictured here are two-seat
trainer versions of their single-seat counterparts,
but are still very much "fighters." |
When
military pilots learn to fly, they often do it in
relatively docile, honest training airplanes like
some of the ones depicted here. While the top speeds
and climb rates of these aircraft certainly won't
set the sky on fire, they possess an exciting level
of maneuverability and excellent handling
characteristics. In addition, they are certainly the
most affordable jets to own in terms of per-hour
operating costs ("affordable" being a relative term,
of course...) In recent years, trainers,
fighter-trainers and light attack aircraft from many
countries have made their way into private hands. Many of the aircraft classified as "attack" aircraft
or "fighter-trainer" aircraft are actually
derivatives of trainers, and therefore have similar
handling characteristics. Distinctions between
airplanes are sometimes blurry -- some of the
following jets were used in different roles in
different countries at the same time, for example,
Country 'A' might have used one as a primary
trainer, while Country 'B' might have mounted bombs
and rockets on the same design and called it a
"strike" aircraft. For you purists, we apologize for
grouping these versatile aircraft in with the pure
trainers. Eventually, we will expand our photo
section to differentiate between these aircraft. |
