Fighter Jets Timeline

Fighter Jets 22

1939 Heinkel He 178 makes the first jet flight Rostock, Germany Test pilot Erich Warsitz flies the Heinkel He 178, the first aircraft powered by a turbojet, days before the outbreak of the Second World War.
1944 Messerschmitt Me 262 enters service The first operational jet fighter Germany's twin-engined Me 262 becomes the first jet fighter in front-line service. Far faster than any Allied piston fighter, it arrives too late and in too few numbers to change the war.
1944 Gloster Meteor enters RAF service The Allies' first jet fighter No. 616 Squadron receives the Meteor, the only Allied jet fighter to see combat in the Second World War, used first against V-1 flying bombs.
1947 – present Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 Soviet swept-wing jet fighter The Soviet swept-wing fighter that stunned UN pilots over Korea. Powered by a copy of the British Rolls-Royce Nene engine, it became one of the most-produced jet aircraft ever built — and North Korea still reportedly flies it as a trainer.
1947 – 1994 North American F-86 Sabre The MiG-15's great rival The first American swept-wing fighter and the MiG-15's great rival over Korea's MiG Alley. Built under licence in Canada, Australia, Italy and Japan.
1947 Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier Bell X-1, Mojave Desert Flying the rocket-powered Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis, Chuck Yeager exceeds Mach 1 in level flight, opening the way to supersonic fighters.
1955 – present Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 The most-produced supersonic jet The most-produced supersonic jet aircraft in history, with more than 11,000 built and flown by some sixty air forces on four continents.
1958 – present McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II Twin-engined, two-seat, everywhere Big, fast and twin-engined, the Phantom II flew with the US Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force at once. 5,195 were built, and it fought from Vietnam to the Middle East.
1969 US Navy Fighter Weapons School founded Top Gun, NAS Miramar Alarmed by poor air-to-air results over Vietnam, the US Navy sets up a dogfighting school for its best fighter crews at Naval Air Station Miramar, California.
1970 – present Grumman F-14 Tomcat Swing-wing fleet defender The swing-wing fleet defence fighter built to protect US carriers with the long-range Phoenix missile. Made famous by Top Gun, retired by the US Navy in 2006 and still flown by Iran.
1972 – present McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle Air superiority, undefeated The air superiority fighter with more than 100 air-to-air victories and no losses in air-to-air combat.
1974 – present General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon The lightweight fighter Small, cheap and agile — the lightweight fighter that became the most widely used fighter of its era, with more than 4,600 built for some 25 air forces.
1977 – present Sukhoi Su-27 The Soviet answer to the F-15 The Soviet answer to the F-15: a long-range, highly manoeuvrable fighter whose airframe spawned the Su-30, Su-35 and Chinese J-11 families.
1982 Bekaa Valley air battle Operation Mole Cricket 19 Israeli F-15s and F-16s, supported by early-warning aircraft, destroy Syrian air defences and shoot down dozens of Syrian fighters without loss in air combat — one of the most one-sided air battles in history.
1986 Top Gun premieres Tom Cruise as Maverick Tony Scott's Top Gun, filmed with real US Navy F-14s, becomes the highest-grossing film of 1986 and a recruiting boost for naval aviation.
1990 – present Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor The first fifth-generation fighter The first operational fifth-generation fighter, combining stealth, supercruise and thrust vectoring. Only 195 were built, and US law bans its export.
1991 Gulf War air campaign begins Operation Desert Storm Coalition aircraft open an air campaign of more than five weeks against Iraq. US F-15Cs score the majority of the coalition's air-to-air victories.
2000 – present Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II One stealth fighter, three versions The single-engine stealth fighter built in three versions — conventional, short take-off/vertical landing and carrier — and the most expensive weapons programme in history.
2010 Sukhoi Su-57 first flight Russia's fifth-generation fighter The T-50 prototype of Russia's first stealth fighter flies at Komsomolsk-on-Amur. It enters service as the Su-57 in 2020.
2011 Chengdu J-20 first flight China's first stealth fighter China's J-20 makes its first flight in Chengdu, making China the third country to fly a fifth-generation fighter.
2022 Global Combat Air Programme announced United Kingdom, Italy and Japan Britain, Italy and Japan merge their next-generation fighter projects into a single sixth-generation fighter, planned to enter service in 2035.
2025 Boeing wins NGAD — the F-47 US sixth-generation fighter The US Air Force picks Boeing to build its Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, designated F-47, to succeed the F-22.