Zephyr Net

I think it's the B-52. Created in 1952, expected to be in service all the way to 2045.

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allah no longer exists, for I have killed him. You must worship me instead.

I voted C-130. It may not be as glamorous as a combat jet, but it has been the workhorse of the Western world for ~50 years. The BUFF is a workhorse bomber, but transport planes do more constant work than bombers- wartime, peacetime, civilian as well. And the C-130 is effective in combat as a gunship.


A random C-130 pic from Scramble.nl. C-130s are so prolific I found a pic on the second random national order of battle I clicked (U.A.E.).

Zephyr

Like I said- I voted for the BUFF, because it was created in 1952 and is expected to be in service till 2045.

A close 2nd IMO is the F-15, due to the fact that it's undefeated in aerial combat, and has about 60-70 more kills than the F-16.

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allah no longer exists, for I have killed him. You must worship me instead.

I voted for the F-86, for without it, we would have lost the entire Korean War. You cant say that about any other aircraft in the list...

The only other aircraft in the list to face a real threat was the F-4 and we lost that war...

The F-86 was the only answer to the Soviet Threat in the MiG-15 and kept South Korea free ...

B-52- 1952-2045

that's all that needs to be said.

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allah no longer exists, for I have killed him. You must worship me instead.

The B-29 should have been on there.

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Centurian

It's impossible to list every plane. That's why I put the 'other' category in there.

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allah no longer exists, for I have killed him. You must worship me instead.

This can turn bloody. But calling the B-29 "other" is disrespectful. But hey it is yer poll and you did make it.

:: subtlties inserted here ::

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Centurian

All of the planes I listed are/were stapels of U.S. airpower. It would be disrespectful to put any of them in the 'other' category as well. But the poll simply couldn't hold all of the choices.

With that said the F/A-18, and the F-14 are in the 'other' category as well.

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allah no longer exists, for I have killed him. You must worship me instead.

Do you realize that without the B-29 the Japan campaign would have lasted years longer than it was? And no I'm not talking about the atomic bombs. Hell without the B-29 there wouldn't have been any aircraft to deliver the suckers.

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Centurian

I respect the B-29, I never said I didn't. But I had to put something in the other category. The poll simply couldn't hold them all.

And each plane on the list (and just about every American plane in service) has a proud history of some sort.I just didn't have enough spots to add every plane the USAF (and Army Air Corp) have flown.

But without the BUFF we wouldn't have had a capable long range nuclear bomber in the 50s and 60s, we wouldn't have been able to unleash the firepower we did on the VC and NVA (and thus more lives would have been spent for a lost cause), and we wouldn't have an effective airborne cruise missile system today. Not to mention it's going to be about 100 years old when it gets retired. That's just an engineering marvel!

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allah no longer exists, for I have killed him. You must worship me instead.

The B-52, while being a great aircraft, was found to be to vulnerable over Vietnam to survive in the face of modern air defenses. Large numbers were lost to SA-2s and MiGs..

Its use in Desert Storm/Iraqi Freedom was only after substancial (if not all) air supremacy and DEAD (Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses) had been accomplished.

In Desert Storm we would have won that war with or without the BUFF...

In the Korean War we simply would have lost without the Sabre... The Reds would have been able to establish air superiority over our straight winged jets, as it was, 2 squadrons fought off MiG-15s at a ratio of 100 to 1... The B-29s suffered huge losses in the face of the MiGs and were forced into nightime strikes. They never again flew to the Yalu in daylight.

The only other comparison you could make, would have been the continued losses of B-17s and B-24s over Europe if the P-51 had not been manufactured. The German Airforces would have maintained air superiority and fought off the bombers, ending up in total control of the air over the continent of Europe, and probably leading to absolute loss on D-Day, if it were attempted at all, in the face of superior axis air power...

The same goes for Korea... If the NKs, China, and Russia had been able to establish air superiority then our forces, which were massivley out numbered, would have been exposed to massive airstrikes and crushed, in the same way we crushed the Chinese infantry from the air when the F-86 assured our control and bottled up the MiGs in MiG Alley in the far northeastern corner of Korea...

No other aircraft has accomplished so much while facing such a superior enemy in technology(The MiG-15 was vastly superior to the F-86 until the solid wing F-86 F was introduced in 1952/53) and in numbers (100 to 1) and stacked up such a kill ratio of 12 to 1...

All other US fights, the USAF held the advantage in numbers and technology...

CAG out...

No offense to the F-86, but I have little doubt that the F-15 would have overcome the MiG-29 if it the 2 planes were placed in the same conditions as the airwar in Korea.

To me- the fact that the B-52 is expected to go all the way to 2045 even though we have stealth bombers already is amazing.

And even though it is a prime target for enemy SAMs and fighters- it can still be used as a long range cruise missile platform. And it's big loads (dropped over the target) are saved for when SAMs, radar and the like are taken out by wild weasels and HARM missiles. So there really isn't that big of a SAM threat when they go in nowadays.

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allah no longer exists, for I have killed him. You must worship me instead.

Depends on the battlefield... If we had to attack North Korea we would be facing the largest integrated air defense network in our history. The DPRK's air defense is essentially 100 times as dense as it was over North Vietnam.


Even the Bone would have difficulty surviving in the face of this dense a defense...

In this sort of environment, the BUFF would have to be a standoff cruise missile launcher with no possibilities of survival in a carpet bombing type of mission...

However, I dont want anyone to think I am detracting from how great this aircraft truly is... No other combat aircraft, in the history of aviation, has served as long as the B-52 in front line service, nor will continue to server...

WIth the possible exception of the TU-95 in Russian Service... This bomber is also a 1950s design and still serves in front line units and is expected to do so for quite awhile, but it has never seen combat and it is unknown what its survival capabilities would be, nor its effectiveness...

However the F-86 still gets the ultimate vote from me for most effective combat aircraft. It won a war that we would have otherwise lost. You cant say that about any other aircraft on your list...

CAG out...

CAG, I'm not a history buff to be sure. When did the F-86s come into the conflict? I believe they were held back for a while in Japan at first?

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

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