The History channel aired a TV series called “Dogfights” from 2006 to 2008. This was a military aviation series depicting historical re-enactments of air-to-air combat that took place in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and wars that took place in the Middle East such as the Six-Day War, 6th October War and Gulf War.

One of the most interesting episodes in this TV series was the last one in season two called “Dogfights of the Future”. This episode demonstrated a number of combat scenarios that may occur in the future with weapons currently under development such as the F-35, MiG-35 and scram jets and others that were still in development back in 2008 such as the F-22.

I decided to illustrate the different aircraft that took part in this TV series for aircraft enthusiast to know what aircraft will take part in conflicts of the future. Some of these aircraft are existing generation 4 and 4++ fighters that were produced from 1980 until our present day. Others are 5th generation fighters that were recently introduced in the inventory of western countries or are currently under development.

I will include a short description of each aircraft from Wikipedia and photos from my own collection and of the real vehicle.

 

F-22 Raptor:

The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is a single-seat, twin-engine fifth-generation super-maneuverable fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. It was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but has additional capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles.  Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is the prime contractor and is responsible for the majority of the airframe, weapon systems and final assembly of the F-22. Program partner Boeing Defense, Space & Security provides the wings, aft fuselage, avionics integration, and training systems.

 

F-35 Lightning II:

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, fifth generation multirole fighters under development to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with stealth capability. The F-35 has three main models; the F-35A is a conventional takeoff and landing variant, the F-35B is a short take off and vertical-landing variant, and the F-35C is a carrier-based variant.

 

MiG-29 Fulcrum:

The Mikoyan MiG-29 is a fourth-generation jet fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the MiG-29, along with the larger Sukhoi Su-27, was developed to counter new American fighters such as the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, and the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. The MiG-29 entered service with the Soviet Air Force in 1983.

 

Su-30 Flanker-C:

The Sukhoi Su-30 is a twin-engine, two-seat super-maneuverable fighter aircraft developed by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions.

 

MiG-35 Fulcrum-F:

The Mikoyan MiG-35 is a further development of the MiG-29M/M2 and MiG-29K/KUB technology. It is classified as a 4++ generation jet fighter by Mikoyan. The first prototype was a modification of the aircraft that previously served as MiG-29M2 model demonstrator. 10 prototypes have been built so far and are currently subject to extensive field trials. The MiG-35 is now classed as a medium-weight aircraft because its maximum take-off weight has increased by 30 percent, exceeding its previous criteria of classification.

 

Su-47 Berkut (Golden Eagle):

The Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut was an experimental supersonic jet fighter developed by Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. A distinguishing feature of the aircraft was its forward-swept wing that gave the aircraft excellent agility and maneuverability. While serial production of the type never materialized, the sole aircraft produced served as a technology demonstrator prototype for a number of advanced technologies later used in the 4.5 generation fighter SU-35BM and current fifth-generation jet fighter prototype Sukhoi PAK FA.

 

B-2 Spirit:

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (also known as the Stealth Bomber) is an American strategic bomber, featuring low observable stealth technology designed for penetrating dense anti-aircraft defenses; it is able to deploy both conventional and nuclear weapons. The bomber has a crew of two and can drop up to eighty 500 lb (230 kg)-class JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen 2,400 lb (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs. The B-2 is the only aircraft that can carry large air-to-surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration.

 

Dassault Rafale:

The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine delta-wing fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Dassault described the Rafale as being an omnirole fighter with semi-stealth capabilities. The Rafale is a multirole combat aircraft; capable of simultaneously undertaking air supremacy, interdiction, reconnaissance, and the airborne nuclear deterrent missions.

 

B-1R Lancer:

The B-1R is a proposed upgrade of existing B-1B aircraft. The B-1R (R for "regional") would be fitted with advanced radars, air-to-air missiles, and new Pratt & Whitney F119 engines. This variant would have a top speed of Mach 2.2, but with 20% less range.

The model displayed below is of the B-1B not the B-1R. The difference between both aircraft is that the B-1R has the capability of carrying air-to-air missiles on external pylons and has a different tail section design meant to reduce its radar cross section.

 

Boeing YAL-1:

The Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser test bed, (formerly Airborne Laser) weapons system is a megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) mounted inside a modified Boeing 747-400F. It is primarily designed as a missile defense system to destroy tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs), while in boost phase.

 

MQ-9 Reaper:

The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (formerly called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), capable of remote controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) for use by the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, the CIA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Royal Air Force, and the Italian Air Force. The MQ-9 and other UAVs are referred to as Remotely Piloted Vehicles/Aircraft (RPV/RPA) by the U.S. Air Force to indicate their human ground controllers. The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance.

I do not own a model of the MQ-9 Reaper, but I do own a model of the older RQ-1 Predator.

 

E-3 Sentry:

The Boeing E-3 Sentry is an airborne early warning and control (AWACS) developed by Boeing as the prime contractor. Derived from the Boeing 707, it provides all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications, and is used by the United States Air Force (USAF), NATO, Royal Air Force (RAF), French Air Force and Royal Saudi Air Force. The E-3 is distinguished by the distinctive rotating radar dome above the fuselage.

 

Scram Jets:

A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is a variant of a ramjet air-breathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow. As in ramjets, a scramjet relies on high vehicle speed to forcefully compress and decelerate the incoming air before combustion (hence ramjet), but whereas a ramjet decelerates the air to subsonic velocities before combustion, airflow in a scramjet is supersonic throughout the entire engine. This allows the scramjet to operate efficiently at extremely high speeds: theoretical projections place the top speed of a scramjet between Mach 12 (9,100 mph; 15,000 km/h) and Mach 24 (18,000 mph; 29,000 km/h)[not verified in body]. The fastest air-breathing aircraft is a SCRAM jet design, the NASA X-43A which reached Mach 9.6. For comparison, the second fastest air-breathing aircraft, the manned SR-71 Blackbird, has a cruising speed of Mach 3.2 (2,100 mph).

The scram jets that were featured in the TV series were not recognizable. There was a mention however of the American Boeing X-51 scramjet. This is an unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft for hypersonic (Mach 6, approximately 4,000 miles per hour (6,400 km/h) at altitude) flight testing. It successfully completed its first powered flight on 26 May 2010 and also achieved the longest duration flight at speeds over Mach 5.

 

Feel free to watch this episode on Youtube. I embedded the video below. Enjoy !!