Formulating the Advanced Tactical Fighter

Total and unyielding air supremacy is the number 1 requirement to achieve a complete
victory against any well-equipped adversary in a modern war. The need to maintain
complete air superiority is imperative. This need first became apparent during World
War I, when, for the first time, aircraft were extensively used for all-out warfare.
By the time the United States entered World War II, numerous advances in U.S. military
aviation—especially in fighter-type aircraft—had been realized. No longer were U.S. Army
and U.S. Navy biplane fighters armed only with two small-bore (.30-caliber) machine guns.
Instead, following a paradelike succession of airframe and powerplant advancements, the
Army and Navy had acquired a number of monoplane fighters with as many as four largebore
(.50-caliber) machine guns.
These single-wing army and navy fighters of late 1941—the Grumman F4F Wildcat, Seversky
P-35, Curtiss P-36 Hawk, Bell P-39 Airacobra, and Curtiss P-40 Warhawk—quickly
proved to be inadequate. They were demonstrably inferior to Germany's Messerschmitt Bf
109 and Japan's Mitsubishi A6M Reisen (better known as the Zero).
Experience quickly dictated that the Army and Navy acquire a variety of much improved
fighter planes, heavily armed with six to eight .50-caliber machine guns. These included
the Chance Vought F4U Corsair, the Grumman F6F Hellcat, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning,
the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, the North American P-51 Mustang, and the Bell P-63 King
Cobra. The F4F, P-39, and P-40 fighters had fought valiantly, but after 1942, the more
advanced P-38, P-47, P-51, F4U, and F6F fighters excelled, allowing the United States to
gain and maintain air superiority in all theaters of operation.
The lesson was obvious. To prevent World War III, the United States had to continue to
produce matchless fighter aircraft, able to secure air superiority. The new fighters would
come just as the jet age unfolded.
The first generation of post-World War II jet fighters included the Grumman F9F Panther,
the McDonnell F2H Banshee, the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, and the Republic F-84 Thunderjet.
These provided the training and logistic base necessary for the development of the
second generation of swept-wing aircraft that would be able to exceed the speed of sound.