One CAS badass and two afterthoughts?
I'm going to assume you just chose ugly aircraft for the sake of starting this thread.

Actual sexy aircraft:

F-22

For my money, it's the F-15. Doesn't hurt that it's 104-0 in combat!

In for the win....

jkag89 said:

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falcon09 said:

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If you want to stick to fighters, the F-86 can't be beat

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One of the most impressive flight demonstrations I ever witnessed at an airshow was by a C-17, I was amazed at how nimble it was for such a large aircraft. My father flew Sabres early in his Air Force career still his favorite of all the aircraft he flew in the military and civilian life was this less than beautiful airplane



C-130 air frame is so versatile that despite the fact that the prototype first flew 65 years ago not are they still in service, new aircraft a still being produced.

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Fun fact. In operation Credible Sport, C-130's were outfitted with landing and takeoff assist rockets strapped to them to enable them to land and takeoff from a soccer stadium as part of a rescue mission during the Iranian hostage crisis. It ended up not being necessary, but the project would have worked. It had a successful short takeoff, but the first landing test was a failure due to pilot/engineer error on when to fire the descent assist rockets. The test bed aircraft was ready only 3 weeks after the project started (and performed perfectly), and a fully modified aircraft (the one that crashed on landing and would have been actually used) was ready 4 weeks later.


Also, the navy landed a modified C-130 on the USS Forrestal in 1963. Versatile indeed.