Military = P-51, F-16, F-22 Raptor...
I'm partial to the F-16... A very good friend of mine was an F-16 pilot out of Shaw AFB. He participated in the first daylight raid on Baghdad in Desert Storm.
The mission is mentioned in the book " Skunkworks" by Ben Rich.
My favorite "airplane of all time" is Mike Manary's Walther Turboprop Glasair III. 750hp+ in a 1,500lb. airplane. Mike brought his plane to Darlington Jetport ( UDG) back in 1998 and gave me a ride. We went wheels up long before mid -runway and Mike raised the gear and flew level about 40 ft off the runway. When we got to the end of the asphalt, Mike jerked the stick back and that MoFo went Straight
UP with the 6000fpm VSI pegged... We went through 10,000ft in less than 2 minutes. He rolled the plane through an Immelmann to his cruise heading and leveled out at 11,500ft. The airspeed indicator only went to 300mph and it was also pegged through most of the flight. It would cruise easily at 400+mph on less than 30gph burn rate. When it was time to come down, he lined up directly over UDG, cut the power, and pushed the nose over. Straight DOWN at 10,000 fpm. "Steep Decent" took on a whole new meaning.
My friend who piloted the F-16 also rode that day and said it literally flew like a point and shoot jet fighter, and the plane was the closest thing to flying a jet he had been in since he had retired.
Mike's plane was featured in KITPLANES magazine in late 1998. I told Mike his plane was the only plane qualified to be on the cover of HotRod Magazine..
I'll look for my copy of KitPlanes and take some pics and post up later.
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Mike flew the thing to Oshkosh and slept in a hammock strung up between the landing gear.
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