Top 10+ Crazy & Ice-cool Cold War Warplanes

With seemingly unlimited funding, the Cold War created a wild menagerie of exciting warplanes.

Some were extremely exciting and charismatic, some utterly daft or downright evil. Here are 10 Crazy & Ice-cool Cold War Warplanes:

10: Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor

Nothing says Cold War aviation madness like the Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor. Mad futuristic appearance? Check. Combination of rocket and jet propulsion? Check. Slightly daft and exciting name? Check again. The Thunderceptor's unusual wing was 'flared' in shape as a solution intended to address the dangerous issue of 'pitch-ups'.

The XF-91 first flew in 1948. It flew faster that the speed of sound in 1951, becoming the first US fighter (albeit experimental) to exceed the speed of sound in level flight. The Thunderceptor’s rather exciting mixed propulsion was rendered obsolete by improvements in available thrust from turbojet engines.  

The XF-91 was powered by one General Electric J47-GE-7 turbojet, with 5200 lbf (23 kN) thrust (increasing to 6100 lbf (27 kN) with water injection) and leaping up to 6900 lbf (31 kN) with afterburner, and one Reaction Motors XLR11-RM-9 liquid-fuelled rocket engine of 6,000 lbf (27 kN) using Water-alcohol fuel with liquid oxygen as the oxidiser.

Other mixed propulsion fighters included the Avro 720, Saunders-Roe SR.53, and Saunders-Roe SR.177. A rocket could indeed work for additional thrust, but two fuel sources and the hazards and endurance of rocket propulsion meant the better solution was to wait for better pure jet engines, which is what the US Air Force did.

9: Northrop F-20 Tigershark

The F-20 was a souped-up variant of the F-5 light fighter. However, unlike the twin-engined Tiger II and Freedom Fighter, the F-20 was powered by a single engine. It was intended to serve the needs of US client nations that were not cleared to purchase fighters as advanced as the F-16.

The F-20 was slightly inferior to the F-16 in performance terms but would have been easier to maintain and cheaper to operate, though some of the reliability claims for it were perhaps a little exaggerated. Flight trials went extremely well, and the famous Chuck Yeager became an enthusiastic advocate of the type.

When restrictions on F-16 exports were relaxed the F-20 lost its raison d’etre. An attempt to provide F-20s for the US aggressor fleet proved unsuccessful perhaps as General Dynamics and some in the F-16 community feared the F-20 reaching production status.

In the end, this privately funded fighter fell by the wayside, but did serve to distract attention away from Northrop’s secretive work on the nascent B-2 stealth bomber. The F404 engine that had powered the F-20 did find gainful employment in the light fighter world, going on to power the Saab Gripen, KAI FA-50 and Tejas Mk 1.

8: Crusader III

The Crusader III took everything that was good about the Crusader I & II fighters and turned it up to 11. Chin intake, bigger and jutting forward like an attacking shark’s mouth to control the airflow as it neared Mach 3 (the maximum tested speed was Mach 2.39). Ventral strakes, so big they had to fold to the sides when the undercarriage was lowered so they wouldn’t break off on the ground.

Weapons, why not add three medium-ranged radar-guided Sparrows to the four heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinders and four 20mm cannon? Range, speed and maximum altitude were all significantly increased while retaining the legacy Crusader’s manoeuvrability; the guns were planned but never fitted.

In the skies of Vietnam, the Super Crusader would have been virtually unbeatable, able to manoeuvre with the Vietnamese Air Force’s MiGs while using its speed and acceleration to disengage at will.

Despite outflying the competing F4H, the F8U had a few shortcomings that its bullet-like speed couldn’t overcome. Both aircraft carried the Sparrow missile, but the Phantom had a second crew member who could devote his time to operating it. Too specialised for the US Navy, the five F8U3s would see out their lives with NASA, who were soon asked to stop using them to intercept Phantoms because it was getting embarrassing.

7: Addax

From the late 1970s, the IML Group in New Zealand studied existing combat aircraft to see if they could come up with a better solution. Their concept, the Addax, proved to be exceptionally bold. The Addax-1 was to be powered by two vectored thrust turbofans in the 10,000-Ib thrust class (obvious contenders would have included the Rolls-Royce Spey or TF34).

The aerodynamic configuration was unusual, to say the least, consisting of a ‘self-stabilising aerofoil’ formed by the fuselage between the tail booms, with the upper surface blowing across all lifting surfaces, providing the aircraft with extremely short take-off and landing capabilities. Internal weapon bays could carry up to ten 1000-Ib (455 kg) bombs, and external pylons could carry an additional 3000 Ibs (1364 kg).

The gun armament would have been ferocious, comprising either four 30-mm Oerlikon cannon or two 20-mm M61A1 Vulcans. Maximum speed would have been 740mph, and it would have had a tactical radius of 480 miles with maximum bombload.

The Addax-S was even more impressive. This was a supersonic air-superiority fighter based on the same configuration, with outstanding manoeuvrability. Of course, The New Zealand Government was never really going to fund either Addax, but it was an intriguingly left-field glimpse of how fighters could have evolved. The designs were released in 1982, but even today they appear more futuristic than any known aircraft programme.

6: Armed Blackbirds

In January 1961, Lockheed’s legendary aeroplane designer Kelly Johnson delivered an unsolicited proposal to the US Air Force. His idea was to take the Mach 3 A-12 spy plane – the predecessor of the iconic SR-71 Blackbird, which Johnson had designed for the CIA – and modify it to become a very fast strategic bomber, designated RB-12.

More or less in parallel, Johnson was working on a missile-armed fighter version of the A-12, which would have been designated F-12 had it entered service. The Air Force liked Johnson’s original bomber idea but counter-proposed it with a slightly altered design that it called the RS-12.

The idea was to take the A-12’s sled-like titanium airframe with its powerful J58 turbojets and add a sophisticated, long-range radar and a nuclear-tipped tipped air-to-ground missile based on the AIM-47 (originally known as GAR-9) air-to-air missile that also armed the F-12.

The plan was for the RS-12 to penetrate Soviet air space at Mach 3.2 and 80,000 feet (24,384 metres), and fire a single missile from 50 miles (80 km) away, striking within 50 feet (15 metres) of its aim-point within a Soviet city. The Department of Defense ultimately cancelled the F-12 on cost grounds and opted not to proceed with the RS-12.

5: North American XB-70 Valkyrie

Angular and distinctly space-age in appearance, the vast Valkyrie was perhaps the most impressive aircraft ever flown. Boasting a top speed exceeding Mach 3, and an all-up maximum weight exceeding 236,000 kg, the cancelled North American XB-70 bomber was an extraordinary machine.

Answering a 1954 requirement for a replacement for the B-52 bomber, which required an aircraft of strategic reach that could attack the Soviet Union, with nuclear weapons, with impunity. Slowly the requirement grew in ambition calling for a higher and higher top speed.

Power for the aircraft came from no less than six General Electric YJ93-GE-3 turbojets. Each engine could generate 28,000 Ibf of thrust with afterburning, totalling an astonishing 168,000 Ibf of thrust. To put this into perspective this is more than 10 times more power than the Mach 2 capable F-104 Starfighter.

As well as the vast dramatic intakes and exhausts, key to the XB-70’s good looks were its huge delta wing with movable outer sections, and large canard foreplanes. Arguably, no other aircraft has ever combined aesthetics that combine aggressive power with elegance and massive proportions, to such a degree as the Valkyrie.

4: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 ‘Foxbat’

The appearance of the MiG-25 Foxbat (initially erroneously identified as the ‘MiG-23’ in the West) caused shockwaves of panic to Western Defence planners. The aircraft was extremely fast, faster than any operational Western fighter, and it was expected that it would be fitted with advanced systems.

It was also a reconnaissance aircraft; the March 1971 deployment of Soviet MiG-25s and pilots to Egypt and their unopposed overflights of Israel were a shock to the West. Although their contributions to Egyptian security and intel were minimal, their impact on Israeli security was profound.

4: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25R ‘Foxbat’

Even with only two Mach 2.5 overflights a month, the inability of Israeli F-4s and Mirage IIIs to intercept and destroy the Foxbats raised serious questions in Tel Aviv and in Washington about the ability of Western aircraft to engage what was considered the most dangerous Soviet aircraft yet.

As a fighter-interceptor, the MiG-25 proved far more potent than many expected; in Iraqi hands, it shot down at least two Iranian F-4 Phantoms IIs in the Iran-Iraq War, and in Desert Storm, downed a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet. The MiG-25 spawned a more advanced derivative, the MiG-31.

3: Dassault Mach 3 Mirage (1958 onwards)

Consumed with the contemporary desire for ever-faster aircraft, Nord Aviation and Dassault launched studies into Mach 3+ fighters from 1958, known respectively as the Super Griffon and Mirage VIA projects. These appeared overly ambitious and were not given much priority until 1964, when it became apparent that both the USA and USSR had started the production of Mach 3-capable warplanes.

This led to a call for tenders for extremely fast aircraft, issued by the Centre de Prospective et d’Evaluations (CPE) on 14 December 1965, to Bréguet, Dassault, Nord and Sud Aviation. Proposals from Dassault and Sud were accepted in May 1966.

These vast, unwieldy, long-range strike aircraft were now not what the AdA’s (French Air Force) Chief-of-Staff, Général Gabriel Gauthier, wanted; instead desiring a lighter Mach 3 (later Mach 2.7)-capable fighter with high agility at lower speeds. Looking back from the present day, with the benefit of hindsight, it appears Gauthier may have been moving things in the right direction.

The variable geometry G4 design was radically modified to become the Mirage G8A or Avion de Combat Futur (ACF), a fixed-geometry wing development of the G8. This 14,000 kg aircraft was the subject of studies during 1973–75, before being deemed too expensive to be practical.

2: Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-150 series (1959)

Answering the question what happens if you dramatically scale-up a MiG-21 and add a great deal more power, the Soviet Ye-150 could out-drag and out-climb any fighter in the world, and they also looked exceptionally mean. Despite taking its first flight as long ago as 1959, the Ye-150 could reach an astonishing Mach 2.65 (some sources claim even higher speeds) and could ascend to altitudes above 69,000 feet (21,031 metres).

Remarkably, all of this was achieved with the same installed thrust as today’s rather more pedestrian Saab JAS 39 Gripen (which can reach a rather more sedate Mach 2). The series of four experimental fighter prototypes was built in an effort to create a new, highly automated fighter to defend the Soviet Union against a proliferating Western threat.

To catch and destroy these fast, high-flying intruders, including supersonic bombers like the B-58, then in development, the interceptor was to be automatically steered under the guidance of ground radars before engaging its own cutting-edge detection and weapons systems.

But it was a case of too much too soon; the ferociously exacting requirements for the electronics, missiles and powerplant were too demanding, and each suffered severe delays and development problems. What could have been the best interceptor in the world was ultimately cancelled in 1962.

1: Project Pluto

To the ancient Greeks, Pluto was the ruler of the underworld and the lord of the dead, and as such, is a grimly appropriate name for the particularly nasty Project Pluto. Project Pluto was not a crewed aircraft but a plan for one of the most ghoulish weapons projects of the Cold War.

The idea was simple: stick a nuclear ramjet in a cruise missile. A nuclear ramjet is a type of engine that uses a nuclear reactor to heat air and create thrust. To be known as SLAM (Supersonic Low-Altitude Missile), the result would have been a weapon fast enough, travelling at over Mach 3, to be virtually immune to interception by air defences of the day.