fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, [1] as

opposed to bombersand attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The
hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, and small size relative to other combat aircraft.
Many fighters have secondary ground-attack capabilities, and some are designed as dualpurpose fighter-bombers; often aircraft that do not fulfill the standard definition are called fighters.
This may be for political or national security reasons, for advertising purposes, or other reasons. [2]
A fighter's main purpose is to establish air superiority over a battlefield. Since World War I, achieving
and maintaining air superiority has been considered essential for victory inconventional warfare.
[3]
The success or failure of a belligerent's efforts to gain air supremacy hinges on several factors
including the skill of its pilots, the tactical soundness of its doctrine for deploying its fighters, and the
numbers and performance of those fighters. Because of the importance of air superiority, since the
dawn of aerial combat armed forces have constantly competed to develop technologically superior
fighters and to deploy these fighters in greater numbers, and fielding a viable fighter fleet consumes
a substantial proportion of the defense budgets of modern armed forces. [4]
Contents
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1Terminology

2Development overview

3Piston engine fighters

o

3.1World War I

3.2Inter-war period (191938)

3.3World War II

3.3.1European theater

3.3.2Pacific theater

3.3.3Technological innovations
3.4PostWorld War II period

4Rocket-powered fighters

5Jet-powered fighters
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5.1Firstgeneration subsonic jet fighters (mid1940s to mid1950s)

5.2Secondgeneration jet fighters (mid1950s to early 1960s)

5.3Third generation jet fighters (early 1960s to circa 1970)

5.4Fourth generation jet fighters (circa 1970 to mid-1990s)

5.4.14.5th generation jet fighters (1990s to 2005)

5.5Fifth generation jet fighters (2005 to the present)