![]() ![]() (The HAL Marut of 1961 was supposed to be supersonic, but couldn’t quite get there.) The development of the Tejas was as glacial as can be expected of a modern warplane, with the first examples inducted into service almost a decade and a half after its first flight and initial operational clearance achieved as recently as 2019. HAL Tejas ‘Pocket fire’Ī full ostrich shorter than an F-16, India’s light combat aircraft is the smallest fighter currently in service, and India’s first indigenous supersonic aircraft. ![]() Here are eleven jet fighters that may have been delivered in a low-quality chocolate egg. doesn’t count) (c) be flown by a human pilot in the cockpit and (d) have been built and flown, at least in prototype form. To qualify, an aircraft must (a) be a fighter, as in, designed or adapted to do battle with other aircraft in the air (b) have pure jet propulsion (rocket fighters, mixed propulsion, etc. With this in mind, we’ve set out to find the smallest of the small in jet fighters. Things have changed somewhat in modern times-a Sukhoi Su-30, for instance, is less than one metre shorter than a B-17-but the existence of the likes of the Gripen and Tejas means that the lightweight fighter isn’t going away anytime soon. Historically, fighters were supposed to be small, fast, and nimble. If you were in a dogfight, would you rather have a 25-ton Tupolev Tu-128 interceptor or a four-ton Northrop F-5 fighter? The first is the length of a bus, and not just any bus, but the world’s longest bus – the gargantuan Volvo Gran Artic 300 (capable of carrying 300 passengers) the second has a wingspan far smaller than even the diminutive Spitfire. ![]()
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