A fighter jet’s performance, sales, and combat effectiveness are only a few ways to gauge its success. But a jet must first be put into service in order to show success in those fields. The most unsuccessful fighter jets are therefore logically those that were never developed past the prototype stage or left the design board. But the jet must also take unusual action in order to fail, it must be the most promising thing out there but perform horribly.
So let’s take a look at some of the coolest, most intriguing, and most exciting fighter jet failures that have ever occurred. The development’s ambition and distinctiveness are the primary criteria.
FMA SAIA 90
The SAIA 90, created in partnership with Dornier, was intended to be Argentina’s fourth-generation fighter jet and a proud continuation of the nation’s aviation sector, which was among the best in the world after World War II. The project was started by FMA in the 1980s, and it was incredibly ambitious at the time. Fourth-generation aircraft required cutting-edge technology, and the jet had to compete with aircraft like the F-16 and the Mirage 2000, which was no easy challenge for a nation with an economy just bigger than the state of Colorado in the United States.
Additionally, the nation experienced a severe economic downturn at the time. In addition, the Falklands War began in 1983. Moreover, there was a significant amount of global isolation occurring. All of these factors had a part, but the fundamental cause of the SAIA ’90s failure was the jet’s extreme ambition; in order to achieve the requirements, it had to be extremely sophisticated, which was far too ambitious for the manufacturer. In the end, not even a prototype was created, and the project was abandoned after several decades and significant financial waste.
IAI Lavi
Whether Israel’s own fourth-generation fighter jet project, the Lavi, failed because of political factors or because of internal defects is up for debate. The point is that the development was quite expensive. The jet, which has been suckling Israeli taxpayer money since the middle of the 1970s, was extremely advanced for its time—possibly even more so than the SAIA 90. Its supporters have been accused of harboring an unworkable prestige project because it would have been much less expensive to have bought a fleet of F-16s, which is what ultimately transpired.
It’s also debatable whether the Lavi actually failed because when the Chinese Chengdu J-10 project was revealed years later, many people noticed a remarkable resemblance to the abandoned Israeli endeavor. The controversies surrounding this Israeli jet, which was never put into production, and its claimed second life, however, only serve to increase its appeal.
Northrop XP-79
This one succeeds simply due to the project’s chutzpah. The XP-79, one of John Northrop’s fabled flying wings and one of the first American jet fighters, debuted in the early 1940s when it was unclear what to do with these new, swift jet fighters. So instead of being armed with guns, the XP-79, which was originally intended to be a rocket-powered aircraft, was to have leading edges of its wings covered in 19 mm (0.75 in) thick magnesium alloy skin that, in theory, could slice through any foe like butter.
The appearance of such aircraft in dogfights is only imaginable. It turned out to be quite challenging to manage, which is a well-known trait of all flying wings. The concept was abandoned in favor of more traditional designs after the first prototype crashed in 1944 and killed the test pilot.
Heinkel He-162
There were many unsuccessful fighter jet concepts in late Nazi Germany, some of which were more ambitious than others. Be it the Focke-Wulf Ta 183, which essentially established the design of the first generation of fighter jets, or the Focke-Wulf Triebflügel, a project to construct VTOL bomber hunters. But none of them suffered such a severe failure as the He-162. It would be tough to label it a failure based just on production figures; fewer than any modern fighter jets could claim to have produced over 300 of them. However, only about 120 of them have been sent to the military, and even among those, only a small number have been destroyed. In addition, it is unclear whether any combat flights actually took place.
Since the bulk of He-162s were too busy disintegrating in the air, the claim that it took down one British aircraft is strongly disputed. The He-162 merits some respect since it was an attempt to create a low-cost, easily-producible fighter jet at a period when fighter jets were still mainly considered futuristic. However, such ambition was compensated by the airplane’s comically low power, difficult handling characteristics, lack of dependability, and all-around poor performance.
Lockheed L-133
Even so, the He-163 outperformed the LockheedL-133 as the first American fighter aircraft. The L-133, however, was mighty ambitious. It was proposed in 1939 with the goal of showing off operational performance comparable to jets used during the Korean War. It was truly something from the future with its canards, blended wing body, slotted flaps, and two engines. It was rejected because it was too radical and the P-80 Shooting Star was chosen instead because there was no way the US military would spend such an enormous sum of money on something that was so cutting-edge and unproven.
McDonnell XF-85 Goblin
The Goblin is well-known among aviation enthusiasts. A fighter jet intended to be transported within the bomb bay of a heavy bomber, it is infamous for both its appearance and the tale of its demise. Even piston-engine planes from World War II could have outperformed this jet, making it difficult to handle, impossible to dock with the mothership, and completely useless in combat. Given all the previous air-launched drone tests, it was either another fork in the road for fighter jet advancement or perhaps a concept that was much ahead of its time. Nevertheless, it utterly failed.
EWR VJ 101
The aircraft were becoming heavier and quicker as the 1960s arrived, requiring larger runways. But what if it had been feasible to perform vertical takeoff and landing with all of that jet power? Such an aircraft might operate surprise strikes and interceptions, remain undetected in unprepared areas and be independent of any long-term infrastructure. Many advantages to something that appeared wholly possible given modern technology. European aircraft makers were very interested in VTOL aircraft because they had seen firsthand the damage that carpet bombing an air force’s airfields can cause.
There were several attempts at supersonic VTOL fighter jets, including the British Hawker Siddeley P.1154 and the French Dassault Mirage IIIV. However, none of them showed as much promise or progressed as far as the West German EWRVJ 101. It was intended to be a VTOL fighter with six jet engines and fly-by-wire controls that was capable of Mach 2. One of its prototypes actually displayed supercruise capability by reaching Mach 1.2 without an afterburner.
Like many others, it was abnormally expensive and complex, difficult to manage, and the development was only ever limited to the two prototypes. It took another supersonic VTOL jet, the YAK-41, three decades to become operational, and another two before the F-35B was mass-produced.
Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut
The Grumman X-29 and Sukhoi Su-47 are frequently believed to be the only forward-swept wing aircraft ever produced. At least a few smaller, less ambitious civilian aircraft, like the Saab Safari, have done a good job of implementing this idea. This demonstrates that the forward-swept wing itself is not a crazy notion that is totally unworkable. It can be used to significantly improve low-speed performance and maneuverability even on supersonic jets like the X-29 and Su-47.
The X-29 was never planned for widespread production; it was only a technological demonstrator. The Su-47 was not, though. The lone Berkut that flew in 1997 was a prototype, not a technology demonstrator, despite the fact that there were several rumors in the late 1990s that it would replace the American F-22 as the primary Russian fighter jet.
It performed admirably, but it also had a number of issues: the composite wings that could sustain supersonic flights and high-G maneuvers were extremely expensive, difficult to produce, fragile, and unreliable. Due to the impossibility of mass-producing the jet, the nation returned to conventional designs, relegating the Su-47 to the roles of a technology testbed and a show-stopping airshow attraction.
Leduc 022
If some of the airplanes on this list had been successful, the aviation industry as a whole might have gone in completely other ways. Some French experiments from the 1940s and 1950s suggested directions that were so dissimilar from our current reality that they still appear to be from another dimension. The Leduc 022 and its predecessors, the 0.1 and the 0.21 attempted to reimagine how a fighter jet operates with a prone-position cockpit, a gigantic ramjet engine surrounding the air intake, and some test pilots with gonads most likely constructed of weapons-grade uranium.
René Leduc first conceived the idea for these jets in 1938. Similar to the Northrop XP-79, it was not entirely obvious at the time what to do with the newly developed jet engines or how jet fighters would actually function. Leduc’s designs, in contrast to the XP-79, really worked. The French military was very interested in the supersonic, missile-armed 022 and developed seven prototypes, all of which flew. The ramjet engine was fairly prone to catching fire, and the design was far too innovative and expensive. We wonder what might have happened if the project hadn’t been abandoned in favor of the Mirage.
Lockheed YF-12
Everyone is familiar with the SR-72 Blackbird, however, few are aware that it was in fact built on a fighter plane. The SR-71, which was later developed into the airframe, completely eclipsed both the YF-12 and an older A-12 from which it was derived. Three interceptor prototypes were produced, and each was capable of continuous flight at or above Mach 3—the speed at which the Mig-25, the second-fastest fighter jet, would start consuming its own engines. The YF-12 was merely a fighter jet on a higher level. With the exception of perhaps a ballistic missile, it would have been the perfect interceptor, able to catch up to any target and flee from any threat.
The Soviet Union’s decision to use those missiles as their preferred method of bringing about Armageddon, the Vietnam War’s drain on the US military budget, and the fact that the jet would have been significantly more expensive than any other option all contributed to the cancellation of the program. While the US would continue to develop and use supersonic interceptors, nothing would match the YF-12’s capability and ambition. It accomplished what it was intended to do and has never been surpassed in that regard. Thus, the YF-12 is the fighter jet that ultimately fails.