Robin Weelborg: Fighters with the speed of the sr-71 can't use guns. The one time they tried firing a gun from an sr-71 it ran into it's own bullets! And most missles are not as fast as it either, so it would have to slow down to firea weapon - putting it at risk.A third problem is that it flies so fast that any weapons hanging under the wings would cause severe instability inflight. (and it's skin gets so hot from friction that it's possible the weapons would overheat and discharge accidentally).The fourth problem is that it flies soo fast that it takes well over 100 miles for it to make a 180 degree u-turn, not real useable for dogfighting! The sr-71 was originally built to outrun SAM missiles (which it did - several were fired at it by russan and china over the years without ever hitting it). The Russian Mig-25 Foxbat was specifically built to go after sr-71's but it never caught any.Sr-71 is my all time favorite aircraft (just ahead of the F-14 Tomcat). If you've ! never heard of it you might want to look up the B-58 Hustler bomber, which I think is the number 3 al-time most awe inspiring aircraft (and the old b-58's are still in storage at Davis-Monthan airforce base). The B-58 was dropped from service because it was so technically advanced that it's pilots could barely handle it, and it is as impressive looking as the sr-71....Show more
Shaquita Wernicki: But now the successor plane of SR-71 is coming with Mach 6 speed. Here are technical details and amazing images of this aircraft: http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/sr-72-...
Elvin Weichbrodt: The SR-71 is still an awesome aircraft, especially considering that's it's still holds many speed records and was designed and built in the early to mid 60"s. They actually did built and tested a fighter variant and gave up on it for some reasons mentioned here and also it was to expensive.
Karl Samiec: Speed is less important than manuvarability. It is possible to! dodge a missile but there is no way to out run one.
Dex! ter Dicostanzo: You can't build a bomber and a fighter on the same airframe and hope that it captures the critical features of each in their functional needs. We have fighters that serve as 'light' bombers, such as the F/A 18, which is about the best that can be achieved in terms of dual need. You can not build a dragster that can corner, or it wouldn't be competitive on the dragstrip. We still have the best of both worlds, make no mistake. I hope nobody else does, either.
Bob Pucella: MiG-25 foxbat
Carolin Southers: You are funny. Russian fighters suck. Everytime they build a new "super fighter" we get worried, then after we pay one of their pilots to defect with it, we find it is a joke. If their planes are so great, why do they get shot down so many times by our planes in dogfights?
Beau Starcevic: Absolute top-end speed is of relatively lesser importance than things like power-to-weight, maneuverability, loiter capacity, weapons systems, sensors, an! d so on.A good fighter aircraft needs to be able to see, lock, and kill their foe, whilst preventing the foe from doing the same. Raw speed is really of two uses in that equation - ingress, and egress.
