Several fighters have gotten the moniker “flying coffin” over the course of the last century of military aviation. Military aviation inevitably tests the limits of available technology and human endurance, especially when it comes to fighter and pursuit aircraft.
Even when nobody is trying to shoot you down, flying a fighter is extraordinarily risky. A capable fighter plane’s design is challenging as well. Many of the best fighters in history were initially looked upon with skepticism by their pilots; nonetheless, relatively minor improvements in engine, armament, and airframe design can transform a clunker into an elite combat machine. However, elite rank rarely endures for very long, particularly during World Wars I and II. As technology and tactics advanced, fighters that ruled the skies in one year turned into “flying coffins.”
Consequently, the gap between a great fighter and a bad fighter can be quite thin. The crucial effort is in choosing the criteria. Fighters must be assessed as strategic assets for the nation.
What is historically speaking the worst fighter aircraft? For these purposes, we’ll focus on fighters with 500 or more aircraft in production (mentioned in parenthesis); oddities like the XF-84H “Thunderscreech” need not apply.
Pilots and engineers probably struggled to get aircraft ready before anyone engaged in an air conflict. One of the first military aircraft put into substantial industrial production was the Royal B.E.2, which had a run of about 3500 aircraft. It was first flown in 1912 and continued to be used until 1919, albeit its duties gradually decreased as newer aircraft became available.
In a way, the B.E.2 served as an inspiration for the first generation of fighters by exhibiting all the flaws that were despised in fighter aircraft, such as poor visibility, low reliability, controllability issues, slow speed, and weak armament. The Fokker Eindecker’s introduction made flying the B.E.2 extremely risky. Improvements frequently caused more harm than good, with the plane getting gradually heavier and more prone to accidents.
Giving the first attempt a failing grade is difficult. However, the B.E.2 earns a spot on our list due to its difficulties and poor reliability as well as the British government’s choice to keep it in service much after its freshness date. In any case, the Royal Flying Corps’ tardy inability to successfully replace the B.E.2 served as fertile ground for the early proponents of the Royal Air Force, the first independent air force in history.
The Buffalo, a short, squat, and ugly aircraft, entered service in the same year as the vastly superior Mitsubishi A6M Zero and Bf-109. The Buffalo was designed to be both a carrier-borne and land-based fighter, and some were transferred from the United States to Finland following the Winter War.
Provisions for more powerful weapons, additional fuel, and armor plates resulted in weight increases during the design phase. Unfortunately, this resulted in the aircraft being severely underpowered and unable to maneuver like its greatest competitors. Although the Finnish Air Force’s Buffalos performed admirably against the Soviets in the early stages of the “continuation war,” Japanese pilots in Zeros and Oscars slaughtered Buffalo pilots fighting with Dutch and Commonwealth air forces in Southeast Asia.
To make matters worse, the Buffalo performed poorly in the sweltering temperatures typical of the tropics. After the Battle of Midway, when the Buffalo performed appallingly against the Japanese, Marine Corps pilots referred to it as—you got it—a “flying coffin.” It was swiftly supplanted in American service by the Grumman F4F Wildcat, its more superior twin.
The Soviet Union of the 1930s rebuilt its military industries a little too soon, maximizing output around technology that would lag behind foreign peers. Military modernization is frequently about timing. The LaGG-3, which debuted in 1940 but was a development of the LaGG-1, served as the Soviet Air Force’s primary fighter during the German invasion of 1941. It was such a failure that pilots dubbed it “the varnished guaranteed coffin” in a play on the fighter’s acronym.
The LaGG-3 was essentially helpless in battle against the Bf-109 despite having entered service five years later. The unfortunate combination of its weak engine and light wood construction prevented it from gaining a tactical edge over bigger German fighters, and when struck, it disintegrated. It is not surprising that German and Finnish aviators outperformed their Soviet counterparts by astoundingly high margins given the wartime Soviet pilot training methods. The LaGG-3 should have stopped being produced in 1942, but due to the Soviet military-industrial complex’s agility, production continued until 1944.
It was difficult to choose a candidate from the Century series. The majority of the Century Series aircraft were created when the Air Force’s strategic bombing cadre still held sway and was primarily focused on the possibility of nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union. In an effort to tackle this issue, Tactical Air Command focused on fighters heavy enough to carry nuclear weapons as well as interceptors that could catch and destroy Soviet bombers. As a result, the USAF’s aircraft were underequipped to battle the PAVNAF’s fleet of small, agile MiGs.
The F-100 was a good second-generation fighter, and the F-106 was a fully functional interceptor, so the series wasn’t a total failure. The remaining ones encountered the kinds of issues typical of a mismatched collection of technological and strategic principles. The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo was an interceptor that had been turned into a fighter bomber, a strange combination. It would mostly be used as a reconnaissance aircraft. Convair’s F-102 Delta Dagger served admirably as a remote-control target drone before failing miserably in its roles as an interceptor and a fighter bomber in Vietnam.
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, popularly known as the “Missile with a Man in It,” was a fast, elegant, and lethal aircraft that earned the moniker “flying coffin” due to the over thirty accidents it experienced for every 100,000 flight hours. In Canadian service, over 50% of F-104s and over 30% of German F-104s were destroyed in collisions. The massive Republic F-105 Thunderchief deserved better since, despite being built as a nuclear bomber, it was inadequate for the conventional bombing job required by the Vietnam War and was therefore a convenient target for the SA-2s, Fishbeds, and Frescos.
The aircraft of the Century series were made by various manufacturers and were designed to carry out various tasks. The United States Air Force’s failure to envisage warfare outside of the strategic sphere, despite the fact that they were acquired in vast quantities, was the root of all of their issues.
The MiG-23, a powerful swing-wing fighter with attack and interception capabilities, was intended to be the Soviet response to the large American fighters like the F-4 and F-111. And the Flogger was undoubtedly strong. The Flogger, however, proved difficult to fly and keep up. The American “Red Eagle” pilots tasked with evaluating the Soviet aircraft’s capabilities thought the Flogger was an accident waiting to happen. Lieutenant General Robert M. Bond perished in a Flogger operated by the USAF in 1984. The Flogger was a relatively big aircraft that lacked several of the best characteristics of its forebears, notably a low visual profile.
The MiG-23 was initially meant to bolster the Warsaw Pact’s air forces, but most of the clients in the Soviet Union favored keeping their Fishbeds. In fact, because it was so challenging to maintain in service safely, the MiG-23 was essentially a cheap loss leader for the Soviet engine and technical support sectors in terms of exports. Because of their rapid engine burnout due to design, export customers who had lost favor with the Soviet Union swiftly lost access to their fighters. The Flogger has generally had a bad combat record while serving in Syria, Iraq, and Libya. It should come as no surprise that the MiG-23 will very definitely retire from service before the MiG-21.
Attention inevitably turns to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter when discussing potential additions to this list since it should surpass the 500 aircraft cap. As we have already stated, it is challenging to understand the strategic worth of the aircraft without a thorough understanding of its lifetime. For a while, we won’t know whether the JSF deserves to be on this list. For starters, it’s unlikely that the F-35 will see an accident rate anywhere close to those of the fighters on this list.
But given its enormous cost, the JSF is unquestionably a long-term contender for inclusion.
