Alright here we go... this thread is my childhood coming back to play.
My uncle was an A4 pilot, so naturally A-fighters are my favourites, but besides that, while all the other flippydoo fancypants jets go doing 20 barrel rolls just to show how big it's cock is to the tune of Danger Zone, these things are the real beasts - I equate them to the Offensive linemen of air superiority. These things swoop in 100 feet above the ground, laying waste to any array of front-line enemy troops, and launch missiles that probably are shaped like those giant oversized boxing gloves from cartoons which give enemy tanks the finger before punching them in the balls, and detonating with the force of a volcanic explosion on Jupiter. They are ugly as FUCK and when you find out what just killed you, its like waking up next to solid-7 girl. They are slow, dirty, dusty, perhaps clumsy, but then they fire up a fucking spirit bomb on your ass and laugh on the way home to go fuck chi-chi. While those other guys got a bj from a supermodel and a medal for 5 fucking kills, these guys were racking up like 10 times as much death on their shit breaks. If these guys were characters in Full Metal Jacket, they'd all be Animal Mother.
the A4 skyhawk... My Uncle's plane. the Navy's version of the A10 before the A10... thing was able to launch nukes without issue, refuel it's own brethren (if a tanker wasn't available), carry pretty much insane amounts of armament, and along with the Phantoms, turned Vietnam into a flaming forest on the reg. Brazil, Israel, and Argentina still has them in service, where they have mostly been refitted with F16 avionics. Singapore actually got these things up to Mach 1, which is legit for an attack aircraft originally from the 50's. They are one of the few planes the Navy actually used as a Blue Angels squadron. They were the first planes to drop bombs on Vietnam, and though at the time, didnt have any guided missiles, at least 1 was able to score an unguided kill on a Mig 17 from a rocket pod - which is hilarious. Same thing happened a few years later by an Israeli. The Argentines fucked a lot of British shit up with these.
the A6 - the plane my uncle jeff WANTED to fly, and the plane my uncle Phil was a specialized mechanic for, when he was in the Marines. Things were one ugly son of a bitch, but they also were nuke-ready, and had super advanced electronics for it's day. They were originally developed to be VTOL, but that idea was scrapped due to costs. They now serve as Electronic warfare planes.
the Sukhoi SU-25. This thing's like Russia's version of the A-10. Thing has a huge autocannon that shoots depleted uranium, and is Russia's tank killer aircraft - basically the ilyushin IL2 of the modern day for them. They are rugged as shit, just like the A10 and have badass avionics to boot. The russians have used them to gain mad air superiority against the Georgians and Chechens, and Iraqi pilots fucked iranian shit up with these things during 1982 - if they were able to get off the ground. They just load these up with a shitload of Mi24 rocket pods and they use them to scorch the planet.
Speaking of which, the Ilyushin IL2 - kinda fucking badass right there. Russia threw about 46 thousand of these out to the front lines during ww2. More of these were made than ANY OTHER PLANE EVER IN THE HISTORY OF HUMAN BEINGS ON PLANET EARTH. They were slow as fuck, but could take a serious beating, and had safety in numbers, so nobody gave a shit.. They didn't really give a fuck about the tailgunner, and gave him like no armour, but regardless, these things pissed off hitler hardcore - and just like the t34, gave the nazis nightmares as they saw a billion of them coming at them. The soviets claimed to take out 70 nazi tanks in 20 minutes with a squadron of these motherfuckers during the battle of Kursk. Thats laying some fucking WASTE. They weren't accurate for shit, but they'd just send out a fucking airmada of these things and carpetbomb wherever the enemy was - thus being effective as hell. Some crazy stories happened with this plane, and it's easily a favourite of mine for that reason.
the A10 thunderbolt2/warthog. We all know about this one, and with those 2 huge engines and forktail, as well as just stupid armaments and ability to take a scud to the asshole and walk away? Not to mention the sweet paintjobs on the nose with a MEAN TOOTHY SHARK FACE WITH A GATLING GUN STICKING OUT? Thing is slow as fuck, about as fast as a supermarine spitfire, but has moves like a romanian gymnast in the sack. It has an avenger gatling gun, and enough bombs and missiles and whatever to just be a one man wrecking crew of assaulting awesomeness. We all know about them, but here's a rad video.
Lastly, one of the coolest things ever, the Fucking harrier. These things are like helicopters that also can just by chance, go mach 1. Everyone who's played GTA San Andreas loves these things for destroying shit. The Brits used these things to give Argentina a 2nd butthole in the Falkland war while being outnumbered like 5-1, and the Americans have used them in the Marines since it's inception. They haven't really seen heaps of battle outside of the Faulklands, but carry a 22-0 record in air combat. They actually faced off against the A4 skyhawks my Uncle flew, but seeing as Argentine skyhawks weren't fitted with AA missiles, had no heads up AA display and weren't facing Mig 17's, they were pretty much cannon fodder if they got a harrier on their 6. Harrier haven't seen a ton of battle if they ever do again, they are planes that can do plenty of damage. 4 rocket pods 2 missles and 2 cannons... plus the ability to take off and land anywhere? fucking rad. The Spanish, Indians, and Siamese have these in their arsenal too... The plane was so cool, the Soviets even tried to copy it in the 70's but made a plane that sucked huge ballsackary and couldn't carry dick for weapons or work if it was humid/hot. Harrier pilots are super extreme to the max-gnar as well, because they are usually guys who used to do barrel rolls in fucking helicopters. Harriers are super unforgiving and hard to fly, so they take mad skill.
