The A-10 force, flying more than 8,000 combat sorties, suffered only five A-10s destroyed (a loss rate of . 062 percent).
A-10s shot down two Iraqi helicopters with the GAU-8 cannon. The first of these was shot down by Captain Robert Swain over Kuwait on 6 February 1991 for the A-10's first air-to-air victory.
(Many returned to base almost unflyable, but only seven Warthogs have ever been shot down or crashed due to combat.) Production had been shut down since 1984, and zero effort had been put into coming up with a direct replacement.
The F-15 Eagle is a fighter jet that originally made by McDonnell-Douglas (later Boeing). It is known around the world for its toughness and undefeated record, meaning that it has never been shot down by an enemy plane.
19/20 January 1991: F-15E-46-MC, 88‑1692, c/n 1101/E076, of the 336th FS, 4th TFW, USAF, was shot down by an Iraqi SA-2E missile during Operation Desert Storm. Both crew members ejected and were POWs.
Air Combat Command's Gen.
On 21 January 1991, an F-14B with its pilot, Lieutenant Devon Jones, and Radar Intercept Officer, Lieutenant Lawrence Slade, of VF-103 was shot down by an SA-2 surface-to-air missile while on an escort mission over Al Asad Air Base.
The most fatalities in any aviation accident in history occurred during 1977 in the Tenerife airport disaster, when 583 people were killed when two Boeing 747s collided on a runway.
F-15 Eagle is still one of the most dangerous jets around
The F-15 is a legend. The F-15 Eagle and its variants are some of the most capable jet fighters ever. McDonnell Douglas created and produced it primarily as an air superiority tactical fighter. The Eagle is one of the most successful fighters of the modern era.
The A-10C Thunderbolt II is the first Air Force aircraft specially designed for close air support of ground forces. They are simple, effective and survivable twin-engine jet aircraft that can be used against light maritime attack aircraft and all ground targets, including tanks and other armored vehicles.
The A-10 was not built to dogfight
The Air Force's jets simply couldn't fly slowly enough to spot targets in dense jungle, didn't have the fuel to make multiple passes, and weren't resilient enough to absorb much in the way of enemy gunfire.
May 2, 2005 – 2 F/A-18 Hornets of VMFA-323 are shot down by Iraqi/Al-Qaeda Insurgents over south-central Iraq. Both pilots killed. November 27, 2006- An F-16 Fighting Falcon was shot down by Al-Qaeda/Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah while on a low-altitude ground-strafing run. The pilot, Major Troy Gilbert, was killed.
The F-22, the top US air superiority fighter jet, finally has it's first air-to-air kills. In a week, this jet downed a Chinese spy balloon and an unidentified "object" in two separate engagements.
The cockpit has a large bulletproof bubble canopy, which provides excellent all-round vision. The aircraft can survive direct hits from up to 23mm armor-piercing and high-explosive projectiles. The self-sealing fuel cells on the A-10 are protected by internal and external foam.
F6F Hellcat
Hellcats were credited with 5,223 kills, more than any other Allied naval aircraft.
Following congressional approval, the Air Force reluctantly accepted the infantryman duct-taped to a drone as a replacement for the A-10 and insisted that they do not regret trying so hard to replace one of the only things in the United States military that worked like it was supposed to.
The 6 Most Lethal Aircraft in History - Fokker Eindecker, A6M Zero, B-29 Superfortress, AC-130 Spectre, A-10 Thunderbolt, AH-64 Apache.
The Bf 109 was credited with more aerial kills than any other aircraft. One hundred and five (possibly 109) Bf 109 pilots were credited with the destruction of 100 or more enemy aircraft.
1. Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. In 2006, the F-35 embodied the latest in combat aircraft development. With its advanced stealth features it can be declared the world's most powerful aircraft engine and the most advanced radar.
Regarding air crash, a "ghost plane" or "ghost flight" occurs when the plane, already in the air, suffers some type of accident that has incapacitated the crew and passengers but continues to fly until it runs out of fuel and crashes.
The Christmas Bullet, later known as the Cantilever Aero Bullet (sometimes referred to as the Christmas Strutless Biplane), was an American single-seat cantilever wing biplane. It is considered by many to be among the worst aircraft ever constructed.
General Aviation Aircraft Involved in 78% of Crashes
One of the main reasons why general aviation planes are involved in so many crashes is that there are many more of them flying than scheduled commercial flights.
First part is a list of reasons as in the other answer: F-14 was too optimized for one reason, BARCAP (Barrier Combat Air Patrol: when an interceptor rushes from a point to a far-away target to stop its advance), that seemed to be less needed in the 1990s.
However, at least theoretically, the MiG-25 remains the fastest operational fighter jet. It broke numerous records and reached the speed surpassed by no other airbreathing jet except for the SR-71 and its derivatives. The MiG-25 was designed first and foremost as a high-altitude interceptor.
The Tomcat was retired by U.S. Navy on 22 September 2006, supplanted by the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Several retired F-14s have been put on display across the US.