Interceptor Aircraft
The dedicated Interceptor saw its heyday during the technological leaps and bounds of the Cold War.
There are a total of 83 Interceptor Aircraft in the Military Factory. Entries are listed below in alphanumeric order. Flag images indicative of country of origin.
1943
The Arado Ar TEW 16/43-13 was a design concept envisioned as a rocket-propelled interceptor for the German Luftwaffe. The des...
1943
The Arado Ar TEW 16/43-15 concept was born out of an in-house research project studying the possibilities of jet-powered figh...
1986
The Denel (formally Atlas) Cheetah came about from a South African Air Force requirement to update or replace its series of a...
1952
The Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck is an often overlooked indigenous Canadian aircraft design that performed admirably well throug...
1958
The Avro CF-105 "Arrow" appeared at a time when the Soviet Union was consistently developing higher-flying and longer range b...
1945
The Bachem Ba 349 Natter (translated to "Adder" though also known as the "Viper") was one of the late-war German aircraft ini...
1940
The XFL "Airabonita" was a Bell Aircraft Company product developed in parallel with the P-39 Airacobra, a land-based USAAF de...
1940
In the same way that the XFM-1 Airacuda was a "different" sort of aircraft, the Bell company itself was "different sort" of a...
1976
For a time, the McDonnell Douglas (now under Boeing) F-15 Eagle series was the pinnacle of American air superiority, incorpor...
1914
The Bristol Scout was born from a racing aircraft and was, therefore, based upon an excellent performance pedigree. However, ...
2018
The Chinese Chengdu J-20 "Black Eagle" is a 5th Generation fighter design exhibiting stealth characteristics not unlike the A...
1980
After World War 2 (1939-1945), China and the Soviet Union were cooperating political powers. This naturally led to China bein...
1956
The Convair F-102 "Delta Dagger" was a product of the ensuing Cold War years following the close of World War 2 in which jet ...
1959
The F-106 "Delta Dart" holds origins in the original United States Air Force requirement that produced the capable F-102 "Del...
1944
Curtiss Aircraft enjoyed success with its inline piston-engined P-40 "Warhawk" series of fighters which went on to serve in m...
1948
The XF-87 was a failed proposal attempted by the Curtiss-Wright aircraft design bureau to meet an Air Force requirement for t...
1973
The Dassault Mirage F1 was designed to replace the successful Dassault Mirage III series. With a host of new features added t...
1946
The de Havilland DH.100 Vampire held two key distinctions concerning aviation history - she was the first jet-powered aircraf...
1958
In the 1950's, the de Havilland production of the Sea Vixen became the Royal Navy's first swept wing fighter design and Brita...
1942
Discussions of war-winning World War 2 aircraft regularly seem to leave out one of the most famous and successful of the conf...
1956
The F4D Skyray (affectionately nicknamed the "Ford" for its "F", "Four" and "D" used in the designation) stemmed from a 1947 ...
1960
The English Electric Lightning was an impressive engineering feat for the British people. She was the first (and only) Mach 2...
1943
General Motors became a major player in the American manufacturing realm when World War 2 arrived for the United States. With...
1945
The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was a short-lived, high-level interceptor fielded by the German Luftwaffe in the latter part of World W...
1945
By late in World War 2, German authorities had already made a stout commitment to the production of fighters over bombers. Se...
1945
The Gotha P.60 was a highly-modified version of the famous Horten Ho 229 "flying wing" appearing in the latter stages of Worl...
1974
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat-series of variable-geometry wing carrier-capable interceptors is one of the true living success stori...
1945
In many ways, the Grumman F8F Bearcat was the pinnacle of United States piston-engine fighter design. The aircraft arrived wi...
1956
The Hawker Hunter was the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy jet fighter of choice for decades since its inception, becoming the ...
1945
The Hawker Sea Fury was developed out Hawker's Typhoon and Tempest aircraft designs utilized by Britain during World War 2. T...
1944
The Hawker Tempest originally appeared as an improved Hawker Typhoon, the war-winning aircraft that effectively failed in its...
1944
Towards the end of World War 2, there was a definitive shift in German thinking from piston-powered aircraft types to jet-pow...
1945
1944 proved a critical year for Germany and its fabled Luftwaffe. Once a master of the skies, advanced products fielded by th...
1944
The two-seat, twin-engine Ki-102 was classified as a close-support/heavy fighter aircraft and developed by the Kawasaki conce...
1945
The unorthodox Kyushu J7W Shinden ("Magnificent Lightning") was a "wonder-weapon" of the Empire of Japan in the closing mon...
1958
The Lockheed F-104 was in many ways an engineering marvel whose legacy suffered terribly due to several internal and external...
1950
The F-94 (nicknamed "Starfire" in the "C" model only) was developed from the successful twin-seat Lockheed trainer aircraft k...
2005
The Lockheed F-22 "Raptor" represents a culmination of decades-worth of data collection, testing and evaluation for the Unite...
1942
The XP-49 was a development of the Lockheed Corporation and a possible replacement for its successful line of P-38 Lightning ...
1944
The XP-58 "Chain Lightning" was initially envisioned as a larger version of the successful Lockheed P-38 Lightning twin-boom ...
1957
The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo was affectionately called the "One-oh-Wonder" and known moreso early on for its many record-setti...
1943
The XP-67 was the first attempt by the McDonnell corporation to build a fighter for the United States Military. The same corp...
1937
In the years leading up to and during World War 2, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 was the principle fighter of the German Luftwaffe...
1944
The German Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet" was perhaps the most unique frontline, operational-level fighter design of World War ...
1944
The "parasite" fighter had long held an interest within the minds of aircraft engineers, particularly as new methods of propu...
2009
The Mikoyan MiG-29K (NATO = "Fulcrum-D") is a navalized variant of the successful Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum family of fighters. ...
1979
The MiG-31 "Foxhound" was developed as an off-shoot of the record-setting MiG-25 "Foxbat". The Foxbat was of a fast breed of ...
1959
The MiG-21 was undoubtedly the most successful Cold War fighter in terms of reach, operating in over 50 air forces around the...
1970
The Mach 2-capable MiG-23 "Flogger" became the first "swing-wing" fighter to enter service with the Soviet Union and went on ...
1972
Like the Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" and the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 "Fishbed", the MiG-25 (NATO reporting name of "Foxbat") became ...
1942
The J2M Raiden (meaning "Thunderbolt" and codenamed "Jack" by the Allies) was primarily used as a local defense fighter by th...
1945
The Empire of Japan and the nation of Germany had maintained a relationship since Prussian authorities made diplomatic contac...
1944
The Mitsubishi Ki-109 was a specialized derivative of the Mitsubishi Ki-67 heavy bomber. The Ki-109 was designed specifically...
1941
Since May of 1937, the Empire of Japan - both the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force and the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service...
1942
By 1937, it became apparent to the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) that a more modern replacement for the Nakajima Ki-27 was nee...
1941
The Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki (meaning "Demon Queller" and codenamed "Tojo" by the Allies) was a single engine monoplane intercept...
1962
The Northrop F-5 "Freedom Fighter" / "Tiger" / "Tiger II" series was designed from the outset as a low-cost, lightweight, mul...
1950
The Northrop F-89 Scorpion delivered a decade of service to the United States Air Force, charged with the critical defense of...
1945
The concept of the flying wing had been around since the dawn of flight and made more so intriguing throughout the 1920s and ...
1992
The Novi Avion ("New Aircraft") was a Yugoslavian effort to produce a home-grown supersonic multi-role aircraft on par with t...
1985
The Panavia Tornado ADV (Air Defense Variant) was developed for the Royal Air Force (RAF) to fulfill the role of long-range, ...
1944
The XP-72 Wasp Major Thunderbolt was intended to be an "ultimate" design of the highly successful P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bo...
1955
By the late 1940s, the Swedish Air Force (or "Flygvapnet") was reviewing options in an effort to replace its aging series of ...
1960
The Saab J 35 Draken (translated in English to "Dragon" but carrying the meaning of "Kite" based on the aircraft's angular re...
1997
The Saab JAS 39 "Gripen" ("Griffin") forms the primary fighter wing of the Swedish Air Force (among others). The type is a hi...
1961
For decades China, and its regional allies, relied on the availability of their Shenyang J-6 series (NATO codename of "Farmer...
1940
The Su-1 (and related Su-3) fighter aircraft were short-lived prototype developments of the Soviet Sukhoi concern - essential...
1964
The Su-11, by any regard, is considered a potent fighter. Based on a further development of the inferior and limited Su-9, th...
1967
The Su-15 (NATO codename of "Flagon") series of aircraft was designed by the Sukhoi firm as a true interceptor with the sole ...
2012
The Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name of "Fullback") is a dedicated Fourth Generation two-seat fighter-bomber/strike fighter ...
1959
During the Korean War (1950-1953), the age of the jet-powered fighter had arrived. Soviet MiG-15s regularly tangled with Amer...
1946
While the concept of the turbojet engine lingered for some time, it was not put into practical use until the latter part of t...
1957
The Supermarine Scimitar was an oft-forgotten carrier-based, jet-powered, single-seat fighter for the British Fleet Air Arm. ...
1938
The Supermarine Spitfire the legendary British fighter aircraft developed prior to World War 2. The type earned its status as...
1954
The Supermarine Swift series of aircraft was initially designed to supplant the aging and outclassed post-World War Two Glost...
1942
Russian aviation engineer Andrei Tupolev would lend his surname to a plethora of Soviet-era aircraft after founding his Tupol...
1963
The Tupolev-produced Tu-28 (NATO codename of "Fiddler") was a large intercept-capable aircraft built for the simple role of a...
1944
With its origins in the Westland Whirlwind, the Westland Welkin (meaning "Vault of Heaven") was a twin-engined fighter design...
1940
Often overshadowed by its contemporaries in the West (to include the Supermarine Spitfire, North American P-51 Mustang, Messe...
1965
Nearly an exact copy of the Yak-25 (and the Yak-26 and Yak-27 for that matter), the Yakovlev Yak-28 was initially thought of ...
1943
In line with other classic wartime fighters of World War 2, the Yakovlev-produced Yak-9 was another excellent piston-engine a...
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