Top Ten Best Warships

Naval warfare and Naval supremacy has decided the fate of nations, and the power that rules the waves, rules the world.

In order to rules those wave, you need the best ships possible. These are the best of the best, they are the top ten warships of all time.  

 1. Iowa Class - Fast Battleship; United States

Like a cat, the the Iowa class fast battleship seems to have many, many lives. Mothballed at the end of World War II, the Iowas were soon recalled for action in the Korean War .

Again mothballed, they were once more called for the Vietnam War . Almost 50 years after the first Iowa was launched, they were made ready for the cold war.

In 1991, the Iowas answered the call again - when they went into action during operation Desert Storm. 

2. Nimitz Class - Aircraft Carrier; United States

With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the threat of the cold war vanished and the Nimitz class carrier's role changed to one of peacekeeper throughout the world.

And its this ability to go anywhere in the world at a moments notice, and at a speed of 30 knots, that makes the Nimitz class invaluable to the US Navy. But what makes the Nimitz class unique is its two nuclear reactors that enables them to roam the world indefinitely. 

3. Queen Elizabeth Class - Battleship; Great Britain

Launched in 1913, The Queen Elizabeth battleship was the first of a new design of fast battleships that were powered by oil rather than coal.
By early 1916, she was joined by her four sister ships - Barham, Malaya, Valiant and Warspite. Armed with eight 16-inch main guns, and sixteen 6-inch secondary, the Queen Elizabeth class were the most powerful British class warships in World War 1 . 

4. Ticonderoga Class - Missile Cruiser; United States

Initially developed as a Cold War warrior in the 1970's as an answer to the Soviet arms race, the Ticonderoga class' first role was seen as a guided missile destroyer. But it was felt by the Navy brass that something bigger was needed, so Ticonderogas were upgraded to fast cruisers in 1980.

Known as the instigators of the completely 'computer controlled' ships, the Ticonderogas are at the center of today's digital battlefield and have seen service off the coast of Lebanon, Kuwait and Korea, acting in either a peace keeping or offensive roles.

5. Fletcher Class - Destroyer; United States

When one Fletcher class destroyer, the USS Johnston, was commissioned, her Captain made a speech to his crew that typified the destroyer man's creed.

"This is going to be a fighting ship. I intend to go in harms way, and anyone who doesn't want to go along had better get off right now."

By early 1943, the first five Fletcher class destroyers had arrived in the Pacific, their task was to target and smash the Japanese supply convoys.

Already the role of the Destroyer was changing. Once looked on as a defense for the capital ships, the new Fletchers were now being thrown into the furnace of battle.

6. North Carolina Class

On June 1, 1940, the first of the new North Carolina class battleships, the USS Washington, was launched. She and her sister ship, the USS North Carolina, were the first of the new generation American battleships that called for better torpedo and deck armor, longer endurance and gas protection.

Over the next three years there was hardly an action that the North Carolina class were not involved in. 

 7. Bismarck Class - Battleship

Launched in February 1939, and known as Hitler's favorite ship, the German naval brass were itching to get the Bismarck into the fight. On May 19, 1941, they got their wish. The Bismarck went on her first war patrol in the north Atlantic.

Six days later, on May 25th, Bismarck sighted the British Navy's Battleship HMS Hood. Five salvos from the Bismarck's superior guns sent the Hood to the bottom of the ocean.

The Royal Navy wanted revenge for the Hood, and the order went out, 'Sink the Bismarck!'

For over three days the British fleet hunted and chased the Bismarck. Finally, on the morning of May 27th, with its steering smashed from torpedo bombers, the pride of the German Navy was cornered.

For over three hours the Bismarck slugged it out with the British fleet and at 10:39 a.m. she was sunk with over 2000 men lost.

8. Essex Class - Aircraft Carrier 

On March 17 1945, during an air strike against the Japanese Island of Honshu, one Essex class aircraft carrier - the USS Franklin came under attack.

As wave after wave of suicide pilots came in, the Franklin fought for its life. For over 12 hours the ship was a blazing furnace. 724 members of her crew were killed. But the Franklin was so well designed and built that she didn't sink.

In total, 24 Essex class were built - more than any other class of large carrier - and when peace came, the Essex carriers remained in service for another 30 years. No other class of aircraft carrier has served so long or so effectively 

9. Deutschland Class - Pocket Battleship

The British dubbed Germany's Deutschland class the 'pocket battleship' because it was so small, fast and deadly.

The secret of the pocket battleships' speed and power was the innovative design of making the ship lighter.

By using diesel engines, instead of steam turbines, and an electrically welded hull, the Deutschland class was able to cruise over 12,500 miles, equal to half way around the world. It sent shivers of fear throughout the allied navies. 

10. Hood Class - Battle Cruiser; Great Britain 

Known as the 'Mighty Hood', it was considered the greatest warship ever built, and throughout the 1920's and 30's went on world tours boasting its power and size.

But that boast would soon be shattered when World War II began. Hitler's navy had some of the most modern and sophisticated battleships. The Hood met her match in May of 1941 when she came up against the German Battleship Bismarck, and Heavy Battlecruiser Prinz Eugen.

It only took five salvos from Bismarck to pierce the Hood's deck armor. Within eight minutes the Hood sank and out of crew of 1418, only three men survived. 

Read More...

Top 10 Amazing Accidental Inventions

Louis Pasteur once said, "chance favors the prepared mind." That's the genius behind all these accidental inventions - the scientists were prepared. They did their science on the brink and were able to see the magic in a mistake, set-back, or coincidence.

No. 10 - Saccharin

Saccharin, the sweetener in the pink packet, was discovered because chemist Constantin Fahlberg didn't wash his hands after a day at the office. Prepare to get icked. The year was 1879 and Fahlberg was trying to come up with new and interesting uses for coal tar. After a productive day at the office, he went home and something strange happened. He noticed the rolls he was eating tasted particularly sweet. He asked his wife if she had done anything interesting to the rolls, but she hadn't. They tasted normal to her. Fahlberg realized the taste must have been coming from his hands -- which he hadn't washed. The next day he went back to the lab and started tasting his work until he found the sweet spot.

No. 9 - Smart Dust

Most people would be pretty upset if their homework blew up in their faces and crumbled into a bunch of tiny pieces. Not so student Jamie Link. When Link was doing her doctoral work in chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, one of the silicon chips she was working on burst. She discovered afterward, however, that the tiny pieces still functioned as sensors. The resulting "smart dust" won her the top prize at the Collegiate Inventors Competition in 2003. These teensy sensors can also be used to monitor the purity of drinking or seawater, to detect hazardous chemical or biological agents in the air, or even to locate and destroy tumor cells in the body.

No. 8 - Coke

There are many stories of accidentally invented food: the potato chip was born when cook George Crum (yes, really his name!) tried to silence a persnickety customer who kept sending french fries back to the kitchen for being soggy; Popsicles were invented when Frank Epperson left a drink outside in the cold overnight; and ice cream cones were invented at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. But no food-vention has had as much success as Coke. Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton was trying to make a cure for headaches. He mixed together a bunch of ingredients -- and don't ask, because we don't know; The recipe is still a closely guarded secret. It only took eight years of being sold in a drug store before the drink was popular enough to be sold in bottles.

No. 7- Teflon

After all the damage they've done to the ozone layer, chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are persona non grata. Back in the 1930s, however, they were (pardon the pun) the hot new thing in the science of refrigeration. Young DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett was working to make a new a new kind of CFC. He had a theory that if he could get a compound called TFE to react with hydrochloric acid, he could produce the refrigerant he wanted. So, to start his experiment Plunkett got a whole bunch of TFE gas, cooled it and pressured it in canisters so it could be stored until he was ready to use it. When the time came to open the container and put the TFE and hydrochloric acid together so they could react, nothing came out of the canister. The gas had disappeared. Only it hadn't. Frustrated and angry, Plunkett took off the top of the canister and shook it. Out came some fine white flakes. Luckily for everyone who's ever made an omelet, he was intrigued by the flakes and handed them off to other scientists at DuPont.

No. 6 - Vulcanized Rubber

Charles Goodyear had been waiting years for a happy accident when it finally occurred. Goodyear spent a decade finding ways to make rubber easier to work with while being resistant to heat and cold. Nothing was having the effect he wanted. One day he spilled a mixture of rubber, sulfur and lead onto a hot stove. The heat charred the mixture, but didn't ruin it. When Goodyear picked up the accident, he noticed that the mixture had hardened but was still quite usable. At last! The breakthrough he had been waiting for! His vulcanized rubber is used in everything from tires, to shoes, to hockey pucks.
 

No. 5 - Plastic

In 1907 shellac was used as insulation in electronics. It was costing the industry a pretty penny to import shellac, which was made from Southeast Asian beetles, and at home chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland thought he might turn a profit if he could produce a shellac alternative. Instead his experiments yielded a moldable material that could take high temperatures without distorting. Baekeland thought his "Bakelite" might be used for phonograph records, but it was soon clear that the product had thousands of uses. Today plastic, which was derived from Bakelite, is used for everything from telephones to iconic movie punch lines.

No. 4 - Radioactivity
 

Two words that you don't ever want to hear said in the same sentence are "Whoops!" and "radioactive." But in the case of physicist Henri Becquerel's surprise discovery, it was an accident that brought radioactivity to light. Back in 1896 Becquerel was fascinated by two things: natural fluorescence and the newfangled X-ray. He ran a series of experiments to see if naturally fluorescent minerals produced X-rays after they had been left out in the sun. One problem - he was doing these experiments in the winter, and there was one week with a long stretch of overcast skies. He left his equipment wrapped up together in a drawer and waited for a sunny day. When he got back to work, Becquerel realized that the uranium rock he had left in the drawer had imprinted itself on a photographic plate without being exposed to sunlight first. There was something very special about that rock. Working with Marie and Pierre Curie, he discovered that that something was radioactivity.
 

No. 3 - Mauve

Talk about strange connections - 18-year-old chemist William Perkin wanted to cure malaria; instead his scientific endeavors changed the face of fashion forever and, oh yeah, helped fight cancer. Confused? Don't be. Here's how it happened. In 1856 Perkin was trying to come up with an artificial quinine. Instead of a malaria treatment, his experiments produced a thick murky mess. But the more he looked at it, the more Perkin saw a beautiful color in his mess. Turns out he had made the first-ever synthetic dye. His dye was far better than any dyes that came from nature; the color was brighter, more vibrant, and didn't fade or wash out. His discovery also turned chemistry into a money-generating science - making it attractive for a whole generation of curious-minded people. But the story is not over yet. One of the people inspired by Perkin's work was German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich, who used Perkin's dyes to pioneer immunology and chemotherapy.

No. 2 - Pacemaker
 

This list wouldn't be complete without at least one absent-minded professor. But it's not flubber clocking in at No. 2, it's a life saving medical device. That pacemaker sewn into a loved one's chest actually came about because American engineer Wilson Greatbatch reached into a box and pulled out the wrong thing. It's true. Greatbatch was working on making a circuit to help record fast heart sounds. He reached into a box for a resistor in order to finish the circuit and pulled out a 1-megaohm resistor instead of a 10,000-ohm one. The circuit pulsed for 1.8 milliseconds and then stopped for one second. Then it repeated. The sound was as old as man: a perfect heartbeat.

No. 1 - Penicillin
 

You read this far into the list looking for penicillin, didn't you? That's OK. As one of the most famous and fortunate accidents of the 20th century, penicillin belongs at No. 1 on this list. If you've been living under a rock for the past 80 years or so, here's how the popular story goes: Alexander Fleming didn't clean up his workstation before going on vacation one day in 1928. When he came back, Fleming noticed that there was a strange fungus on some of his cultures. Even stranger was that bacteria didn't seem to thrive near those cultures. Penicillin became the first and is still one of the most widely used antibiotics.

Read More...

Top Ten Helicopters of All Time

From their first appearance in World War II, through the Vietnam War and to the modern day, helicopters have helped to transform the battlefield.
These are the best of the best. They are the top ten helicopters of all time.

No. 1: Ah-64d Apache Longbow

Manufacturer: The Boeing
Type: Attack Helicopter
Powerplant: Two General Electric T700-Ge-701c Turboshafts
Principal Armament: One 30-mm Automatic Cannon, 16 Hellfire Anti-Tank Missiles, Seventy-Six 70-mm Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets
Maximum Cruising Speed: 165 mph

First entering service in 1984, the AH64-A Apache was America's answer to Cold War fears of a Soviet ground attack in Europe. The result? A $20 million can opener with state-of-the-art technology.

Built to endure front-line environments, it can operate during the day or night and in adverse weather using the integrated helmet and display sight system. It's also equipped with some of the latest avionics and electronics, such as the target acquisition designation sight, pilot night vision system, black hole passive infrared countermeasures and map-of-Earth navigation and GPS. 

No. 2: Uh-60 Black Hawk

Manufacturer: Sikorsky Aircraft
Type: Multirole Medium Helicopter
Powerplant: Two General Electric T700-GE-701c Turboshafts
Principal Armament: Two 7.62-mm Six-Barrel Miniguns, 16 Hellfire Anti-Tank Missiles
Carrying Capacity: 11 Troops or 8,000-pound Cargo
Maximum Cruising Speed: 160 mph

Nicknamed the Night Stalker, the Blackhawk is an evolutionary airframe. With its large cabin it can fulfill a number of mission sets, including Medevac, reconnaissance, command and control, and resupply. It can also take 11 fully armed troops into battle and has the capability to carry a formidable payload of missiles, rockets, cannons and electronic countermeasures.

Of course no helicopter that goes into combat is indestructible - on Oct. 3,1993, two Night Stalkers were shot down over Mogadishu, Somalia, and the phrase "Black Hawk Down" passed into legend. As tragic as that incident was, the Blackhawk is a gritty survivor. Besides having protective armor that can withstand hits from 23-mm shells, it has an array of cutting-edge safety features 

No. 3: Uh-1 Huey

Manufacturer: Bell Helicopter
Type: Utility Helicopter
Powerplant: One Textron Lycoming T53-L-13 Turboshaft
Principal Armament: Two 7.62-mm Machine Guns, 16 70-mm Air-to-Surface Rockets
Carrying Capacity: 11 - 14 Troops, 6 Medical Litters or 3,000-pound Cargo
Maximum Cruising Speed: 115 mph

The Bell UH-1 Iroquois, better known by its nickname the Huey, first flew in 1956 and is still in service today. Over 16,000 models have been built, the largest production run of any helicopter in history. With numerous appearances in blockbuster films and television shows, it's become an American icon.

The birth of the Huey came in the wake of the Korean War. During that conflict, the U.S. Army was learning that for rapid Medevac and troop insertion, a faster, more robust helicopter was needed. To achieve that goal, the guys at Bell developed a radically new bird that pushed the avionics envelope.

No. 4: AH-1 Cobra

Manufacturer: Bell Helicopters
Type: Attack Helicopter
Powerplant: 2 X General Electric T700-Ge-401 Turboshafts
Principal Armament: 1 X M197 Three Barrel 20-mm Gun, 16 X Hellfire Anti-Tank Missiles, 76 X 70-mm Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets
Maximum Cruising Speed: 173 mph

In January 1965, Bell invested heavily on a prototype for a radically new chopper. Taking the proven transmission, rotor system and the turboshaft of the Huey UH-1, they designed a tandem-seat helicopter that had only one thing on its mind: all out attack! The Cobra went into full production just as the war in Vietnam was expanding. The need for closer air support for troops on the ground had become a priority, and the AH-1 would fly straight into battle. 

 No. 5: Oh-6 Cayuse

Manufacturer: Hughes Helicopters and McDonnell Douglas
Type: Light Observation and Attack Helicopter
Powerplant: Allison T63-A-5a Turboshaft
Principal Armament: Two 7.62-mm Machine Guns and two 70-mm Rocket Pods
Carrying Capacity: Four Armed Troops
Maximum Cruising Speed: 137 mph

The teardrop-shaped OH-6 Cayuse was a small, sturdy helicopter with very low drag. Nicknamed the "Flying Egg," it could perform maneuvers that would leave other choppers in a spin. But being nimble means that this bird can't carry much weight, losing it marks for versatility. The Cayuse can carry a diversity of weapons, but on that small frame only a few can be taken on any single flight.  

No. 6: MI-24 Hind

Manufacturer: MIL Moscow Helicopter Plant
Type: Two-Seat Gunship Helicopter
Powerplant: Two Klimov TV3-117MT Turboshafts
Principal Armament: One YakB 12.7-mm Machine Gun, four 9M17P Skorpion Anti-Tank Missiles, twenty 80-mm S-8 Rockets
Carrying Capacity: 8 Troops
Maximum Cruising Speed: 185 mph

Nicknamed the crocodile, the HIND was a cold-blooded predator for the Cold War age. Capable of tearing through tanks, men and machinery, it saw battle on three continents and was a symbol of Soviet muscle.

Delivered to the Russian army in the 1970s, the Hind was a unique concept in helicopter design. It combined two very different roles within a single airframe, as the Hind is an attack helicopter that also has a cabin section large enough to carry troops. Think of it as what would happen if the U.S. combined an Apache with a Black Hawk. 

No. 7: CH-47 Chinook

Manufacturer: The Boeing Company
Type: Medium Transport Helicopter
Powerplant: TwoHoneywell T55-L-712 Turboshafts
Principal Armement: Two 7.62-mm Machine Guns
Carrying Capacity: 33 - 55 Troops, 24 Medical Litters or 26,000-pound Cargo
Maximum Cruising Speed: 165 mph

The genius of the Chinook design lies in its 60-foot-long contra-rotating rotors. These eliminate the need for a rear vertical rotor, allowing all power to be used for lift and thrust. But the Chinook isn't just about muscle - this bird is fast and agile too.

First deployed to Vietnam in 1965, the Chinook CH47-A was tested to the max.

In just two years it put in 161,000 hours of flying time, carried millions of passengers and transported more than 1.3 million tons of equipment. In a single flight it could carry a platoon of soldiers into the heart of battle, and with its dual hooks hanging underneath, it fast became the king of swing  

No. 8: Lynx

Manufacturer: Agusta Westland
Type: Light Utility Helicopter
Powerplant: Two Rolls-Royce GEM 41-1 Turboshafts
Principal Armament: Two 20-mm Cannons, two 70-mm Rocket Launchers & eightTow Missiles
Carrying Capacity: 10 Troops, or 2,000-pound Cargo
Maximum Cruising Speed: 152 mph

The Lynx's cutting-edge semi-rigid titanium rotor head makes it superbly maneuverable and very fast. In 1986, a stripped-down Lynx broke the record for the fastest speed ever achieved by a chopper, recording 249 mph.

 No. 10: Bell 47 OH-13 Sioux

Manufacturer: Bell Helicopter
Type: General Utility Helicopter
Powerplant: One Lycoming V0-435-A1B 6-Cylinder Engine
Principal Armament: Two 7.62-mm Machine Guns
Carrying Capacity: 2 Medical Litters or 1,000-pound Cargo
Maximum Cruising Speed: 83 mph

The first of many U.S. Army helicopters to be named after Native American tribes, the Bell 47 Sioux was distinctive for its bubble canopy, exposed welded-tube tail boom and saddle fuel tanks. Its two-bladed rotor made a "chop-chop" sound, leading to the nickname "chopper" for helicopters. Easily recognizable for its appearances in the smash hit film and television series MASH, the Sioux earned its reputation during the Korean war -- the conflict in which helicopters first cut their teeth.

Read More...

Some Wierd But Cool Macbook Concept Designs

Do you think you can come up with a better design than Apple for its popular products such as the MacBook and Mac mini? here is a collection of apple coolest but weird concepts.Most of them are pretty nifty, maybe the designers over at Apple would want to check it out for their next product design.

1. Macbook Water Concept

Greeks proposed a concept centuries ago that the world is made up of four basic elements namely Air, Earth, Water and Fire. Well MacBook Air is already out in the market so who says that we shouldn’t expect a MacBook Earth, Water and Fire too. Dvice has made an excellent concept of these 3, however we liked the iFluid idea MacBook Water is an iFluid device that has less booting time than a cell phone. Pour the fluid on a flat surface to get the MacBook Water started and to close it simply wipe the fluid off the surface. Storing it at temperate below 0°C voids the warranty of the product. But unfortunately it is impossible to make it now, lets hope it in next century. Via sizlopedia.

2. Macbook 3d Concept 

We have stepped in world of 3D-enabled technologies. Just imagine chat rouletting in 3D! and a hingeless spine design. Take a look at this MacBook 3D. Via yankodesign. 

3. Apple Mac-tribook Concept

The Apple triBook aims to resolve the issue of screen space that traditionally is a bugbear for most users of notebooks. The triBook comes with two additional side screens in additional to the main screen; thus increasing the total screen space to 21″. The two folding screens are intended to offer users more options to multi-task. However prima facie evidence, as gathered from reading other reports online, suggests that it is gamers who have responded most cheerfully to this news. Via maclife

4. Foldable Macbook Touch Concept

Introducing the first OLED touchscreen flexible macbook ever, the first laptop you can model at will. Via tommasogecchelin

 5. Virtual Macbook Air Concept 

Imagine a lighter MacBook Air, with a virtual keyboard instead of the physical one. The use of two touchscreens made the need of a mouse futile and now no real keyboard, small laser projector that displays a virtual keyboard on a flat laptop surface, makes it much thinner than Dell 9.99 concepts and of course old macbook air which is much fatter in front of it via Petitinvention

6.Digi-roll Macbook Concept 

This is next generation macbook concept where you can actually roll your laptop like an umbrella. Imagine how portable it’d be all rolled up. There’s an in-between configuration that you could theoretically use to browse email quickly, and the straps double as places to plug in your USB devices. It also has a detachable webcam you could use on your macbook or wear on your wrist, however digi roll is not specfically designed for apple but it would be cool to have it for macbook
via D-roll

7. Transparent Macbook Concept

A picture really does say a thousand words. Wouldn’t it be completely magical to have a transparent laptop? Via 2day
 
8.MacBook Mini Concept

It just looks too good and perfect to be true—which is why I want it to be real: It is less than half the size of any macbook and with the perfect, dream technical specs to boot. It features a foldable trackpad which saves up the space when you are not using the keyboard. One other mockup of the MacBook mini by the same designer is a sliding trackpad, which sounds like a better idea than the foldable one. Via slashgear.


9. Macbook with Optimus Maximus Concept

Optimus Maximus, is the dream of any heavy computer user and what if the two technologies combine? Macbook with a completely customizable OLED using optimus maximus. It would looks stunning and the minute you see it, you would realize that you are looking at a device that has some actual richness of personality and could provide a richer experience.


10. Macbook Folder Concept

Is it next MacBook? no, but everyone likes to put their 2 cents in. It’s called the Mac Folder – not all that different from any other laptop but this could be the netbook everyone wants/expects Apple to make. This ultra slim e-folder ‘Macbook Folder’ is equipped with a touch screen display, a large-button keyboard, two built-in speakers, MAC operating system, Bluetooth and wireless LAN. Via laptopinyo.

Read More...

Top Ten Fighter Aircraft of All Time.

Over the past century, dozens of aircraft have been designed and built to fight in the sky. But now based on expert opinion, audience polls and technical comparison, we've constructed a five-point matrix, that will rank the Top Ten Fighter aircraft of all time.

No. 10:F/A-22 Raptor

  No. 10: F/A-22 Raptor
Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin
Power Plant: Pratt & Whitney F-119 PW-100
Top Speed: Mach 2.5
Armament: One 20mm cannon, six AMRAAM and two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles

Because it is almost invisible to radar and carries an awesome array of weaponry the F-22 Raptor, America's fourth-generation fighter, gets superb innovation and fear factor ratings. However, the aircraft's prowess is compromised by its astronomical production costs and the fact it has some way to go to match the combat records of the F-15 and F-16. Therefore, in the kill ratio, production and service length categories, the Raptor scores zip, placing it firmly in 10th place on our list.

No. 9: Sea Harrier FA2

Manufacturer: British Aerospace
Power Plant: Rolls Royce Pegasus mk 104 or 106 turbofan
Top Speed: 736 mph
Armament: Two 30-mm Aden cannon, plus two AMRAAM and four Sidewinder missiles, two Harpoon or Sea Eagle anti-ship missiles

With its unrivaled ability to maneuver, hover and pop up from unexpected places, the Sea Harrier earns a solid fear factor rating. Its unique design and simple-to-produce airframe score well. Despite achieving a high kill ratio in the Falklands, the "jump jet's" slow speed makes it vulnerable to ground fire, which reduces its overall score. Though the aircraft is being phased out of frontline operations it still earns a respectable ninth place in our top 10 league. 

 No. 8: Sopwith Camel

Manufacturer: Sopwith Aviation Company
Power Plant: Clerget rotary engine
Top Speed: 112 mph
Armament: Two Vickers .303 machine guns

Credited with destroying at least 1,200 enemy aircraft, the Sopwith Camel rightly deserves to be called one of the best fighters of all time. Its solid, if unspectacular, scoring across the board ensures its standing in eighth place on the list of the greatest fighters of all time. 

 No. 7: Me 262 Schwalbe

Manufacturer: Messerschmitt
Power Plant: Two Junkers Juno 004s
Top Speed: 540 mph
Armament: Four 30mm MK-108 cannons

For innovation the "Swallow" scores maximum points. As the first of its kind, the Me 262 inspired equal measures of fear and admiration, so it also scores at the top of the scales in the fear factor category. However, because the aircraft was difficult to build and it had notoriously unreliable engines, the aircraft's production rating is low - so too is its service record, having only been active for a little over two years. Nevertheless, the Me 262 will forever be in the record books as being the world's first fully operational jet fighter - a legend of the skies and the seventh greatest fighter of all time.

 No. 6: Supermarine Spitfire

Manufacturer: Supermarine Aviation Works
Power Plant: Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 piston engine
Top Speed: 369 mph
Armament: Eight Browning .303 machine guns; later version, four 20mm cannon

Used in all British theaters of conflict throughout the Second World War the Spitfire remains the unrivaled symbol of victory and Britain's finest hour. But the Spitfire is also famous for giving Field Marshall Erwin Rommel the scare of his life. On July 17, 1944, in the north of France, a Canadian pilot named Charlie Fox shot at the car carrying the German military mastermind and knocked it off the road, putting Germany's "Desert Fox" out of commission.

No. 4 - A Tie! 

MiG 15
Manufacturer: Mikoyan Gurevich Design Bureau
Power Plant: Klimov VK-1 turbojet
Top Speed: 668 mph
Armament: One 37mm N-37 cannon and two 23mm NR-23 cannon

AND

F-86 Sabre
Manufacturer: North American
Power Plant: General Electric J47 engine
Top Speed: 685 mph
Armament: Six .50-caliber machine guns and eight 5-inch rockets

Compared to today's fighters both these jets are underpowered and primitive but few aircraft have done so well at the job they were designed to do. Both the F-86 Sabre and MiG 15 were the right aircraft at the right time and each richly deserve a prominent place in aviation history. Both designs relied heavily on captured German swept-wing technology and British engine design, so for innovation the MiG and Sabre are equally matched. Both fighters were produced in large numbers, but the MiG edges in front of the Sabre in the production category because of its renowned simplicity. Both jets have similar service records. The result? They are inseparable in the rankings: the MiG 15 and F-86 Sabre tie for fourth place. 

No. 3: F-4 Phantom

Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglass
Power Plant: Two J79 Spey turbojet afterburning engines
Top Speed: 1,485 mph
Armament: Four AIM 7 Sparrow and four AIM 9 Sidewinder missiles.

Produced in large numbers the F-4 Phantom has an unrivaled service history. But the aircraft really earns its third place ranking for being fast, durable and deadly. Phantoms were the test bed for missile technology - and the aircraft held five speed records for an impressive 13 years before being beaten by the aircraft featured in the No. 2 spot on our list of the top 10 fighters of all time.

No. 2: F-15C Eagle

Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglass
Power Plant: Two Pratt & Whitney F-100-PW-100 afterburning turbofans
Top Speed: Mach 2.5
Armament: One 20-mm cannon, four AIM-7F Sparrow and four AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles

No other fighter in the history of aerial combat has a record that even comes close to the Eagle's. The F-15 is far superior to most of its brethren - way better than the F-4 - accelerating better, turning better, handling better.

In fact, such is the reputation of the F-15 that during the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Saddam Hussein's air force simply refused to get in the air. They knew the F-15 would just knock them out of the sky.

 No. 1: P-51D Mustang

Manufacturer: North American Aviation
Power Plant: 1600 hp Packard-built Merlin 61 piston engine
Top Speed: 437 mph
Armament: Six wing-mounted .50-caliber machine guns

Fitted with external drop-tanks the Mustang's range was extended to almost 2,000 miles, making it the only Allied fighter capable of protecting the Allied bombers on long-range, deep-penetration raids. The Mustang performed its job so well that after its introduction in 1944, casualty rates for bomber crews were reduced by 75 percent. In fact, American P51s destroyed almost 5,000 enemy aircraft in Europe - making it the highest scoring U. S. fighter in the European theater of operations.

Read More...