Fighter aircraft

The category, explained

A fighter is built to defeat other aircraft. Everything else it does — strike, reconnaissance, escort — is secondary to winning the air. That single purpose drives the shape: small wings for speed and roll rate, enormous thrust for the weight, and since the 1970s an airframe deliberately made unstable so that a computer flying it can be more agile than one a human could control unaided.

The generations are a useful shorthand. Fourth generation means the F-15, F-16, Su-27 and MiG-29 era — fly-by-wire, look-down radar, high thrust-to-weight. Fifth generation adds stealth shaping, internal weapons and sensor fusion, which is the F-22, F-35, Su-57 and J-20. The jump matters less in raw performance than in who sees whom first.

Wingspans stay remarkably small. A Gripen spans 8.6 m and an F-16 just under 10, against 35.9 m for a Boeing 737. Fighters trade wing area for speed and manoeuvre, then accept high landing speeds and short range as the price.

Every fighter aircraft here

Silhouettes are sized by real wingspan — bigger aircraft draw bigger.

Ranked by length