Heavy fighter
Encyclopedia
A heavy fighter is a fighter aircraft
designed to carry heavier weapons or operate at longer ranges. To achieve acceptable performance, most heavy fighters were twin-engined, and many had multi-place crews.
The twin-engine heavy fighter was a major design class during the pre-World War II period. Conceived as long-range escort fighter
s, or heavily-armed bomber destroyer
s, heavy fighters largely failed in their intended roles during World War II, as they could not out-maneuver the more conventional, single-engined fighters. Many twin-engined heavy fighters eventually found their niche as night fighter
s, with considerable successes.
A major heavy fighter design was the Messerschmitt Bf 110
, a German
fighter that, prior to the war, the Luftwaffe
considered more important than their single-engine fighters. Many of the best pilots were assigned to Bf 110 squadrons, and they were specifically designated as Zerstörer ("destroyer") units. While other, lighter, fighters were mainly intended for defense, the destroyers were the ones mainly intended for offensive missions: to escort bombers on missions at long range, then use its superior speed to outrun defending fighters that would be capable of outmaneuvering it. This doctrine proved to be a costly mistake. In practice the Bf 110 was only capable of using this combination of features for a short time; it served well against the Hawker Hurricane
during the Battle of France
, but was easily outperformed by the Supermarine Spitfire
during the Battle of Britain
(also in terms of maximum speed). Eventually Bf 110s were converted to interceptor
s (especially night fighter
s) and ground-attack aircraft for rest of the war. The Me 210
and Me 410
Hornisse were all-new aircraft designs meant to replace the Bf 110, but also could not outrun contemporary single-engine fighters.
Towards the end of the war, the Dornier Do 335
Pfeil could have been an ideal twin-engined Zerstörer fighter design for the Luftwaffe due to its center-line-thrust format, which placed its fuselage-mounted twin engines' propellers on opposing ends of the fuselage, and potentially allowed much better maneuverability, and did allow dramatically higher speeds (just over 750 km/h or 465 mph), than any other twin-piston-engined aircraft of its era, but like so many other advanced German aircraft designs that were actually produced by Germany late in the war, the Do 335 never had the chance to be produced in quantity.
Following the example set by the Bf 110, the Japan
ese built the broadly similar Kawasaki Ki-45
. Likewise neutral Netherlands
built the twin-boom Fokker G.I
, only to be seized by the Luftwaffe after the German invasion of the Netherlands.
", the British lagged behind in its heavy fighter development. Apart from the Westland Whirlwind and Welkin
, built only in modest numbers, the Royal Air Force
's wartime heavy fighters were all adapted from earlier bomber
s. During the Battle of Britain
, Bristol Blenheim
bombers were fitted, as an interim measure and in utmost secrecy, with radar
s and ventral gun packs, turning them into the RAF's first night fighters.
More successful was the Bristol Beaufighter
, which reused major portions of the earlier Beaufort
torpedo bomber
. Armed with six .303 inch machine guns, four 20 mm cannon and an assortment of bombs and rockets, the Beaufighter was potent in the anti-ship and ground attack role in the Pacific and Europe. With the addition of radar
, it was one of the Royal Air Force
's main night fighters. Similarly, the de Havilland Mosquito
fast bomber was later adapted for both day and night fighter use.
of the United States
designed the YFM-1 Airacuda "bomber destroyer". Very large and heavily armed, the Airacuda was plagued with design flaws; only 13 examples were eventually built, none of which participated in WWII.
The most successful heavy fighter of the war was the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. It was designed to carry heavy armament at high speed or long range. For a variety of reasons, notably its excellent turbocharger
and its crew of one (rather than two or three), it dramatically outperformed its German and British counterparts. In service it was used as an escort fighter, following B-17 Flying Fortress raids deep into German-held Europe where it was able to hold its own with the much lighter German fighters. In its escort role, the P-38 was the first Allied fighter over Berlin. It was also highly successful in the Pacific theatre, where its long range proved a pivotal advantage. Expensive to produce and maintain, it was relegated to other roles when the single-engined but equally long-ranged P-51D Mustang
reached squadrons.
The last heavy fighters to see service were the de Havilland Hornet
and Sea Hornet, and the F-82 Twin Mustang
. All were developed at the end of World War II for use in the Pacific theatre, though none reached operational squadrons until after VJ day, the Hornet in 1946, the Sea Hornet in 1947 and the Twin Mustang in 1948.
Although numerous modern fighters could be called "heavy", with regard to their weight, the term is generally no longer used.
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
designed to carry heavier weapons or operate at longer ranges. To achieve acceptable performance, most heavy fighters were twin-engined, and many had multi-place crews.
The twin-engine heavy fighter was a major design class during the pre-World War II period. Conceived as long-range escort fighter
Escort fighter
The escort fighter was a World War II concept for a fighter aircraft designed to escort bombers to and from their targets.The perfect escort fighter had long range, a lengthy combat loiter time to protect the bombers, and enough internal fuel to return home...
s, or heavily-armed bomber destroyer
Bomber destroyer
Historically, several aircraft were designated bomber destroyers prior and during the Second World War. They were interceptor aircraft dedicated to destroy enemy bomber aircraft with exceptionally powerful armament...
s, heavy fighters largely failed in their intended roles during World War II, as they could not out-maneuver the more conventional, single-engined fighters. Many twin-engined heavy fighters eventually found their niche as night fighter
Night fighter
A night fighter is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility...
s, with considerable successes.
Germany
Messerschmitt Bf 110
The Messerschmitt Bf 110, often called Me 110, was a twin-engine heavy fighter in the service of the Luftwaffe during World War II. Hermann Göring was a proponent of the Bf 110, and nicknamed it his Eisenseiten...
, a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
fighter that, prior to the war, the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
considered more important than their single-engine fighters. Many of the best pilots were assigned to Bf 110 squadrons, and they were specifically designated as Zerstörer ("destroyer") units. While other, lighter, fighters were mainly intended for defense, the destroyers were the ones mainly intended for offensive missions: to escort bombers on missions at long range, then use its superior speed to outrun defending fighters that would be capable of outmaneuvering it. This doctrine proved to be a costly mistake. In practice the Bf 110 was only capable of using this combination of features for a short time; it served well against the Hawker Hurricane
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
during the Battle of France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
, but was easily outperformed by the Supermarine Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
during the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
(also in terms of maximum speed). Eventually Bf 110s were converted to interceptor
Interceptor
-Vehicles:* Interceptor aircraft , a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft* Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a police car...
s (especially night fighter
Night fighter
A night fighter is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility...
s) and ground-attack aircraft for rest of the war. The Me 210
Messerschmitt Me 210
The Messerschmitt Me 210 was a German heavy fighter and ground-attack aircraft of World War II. The Me 210 was designed to replace the Bf 110 in heavy fighter role; design started before the opening of World War II. The first examples of the Me 210 were ready in 1939, but they proved to have poor...
and Me 410
Messerschmitt Me 410
The Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse was a German heavy fighter and Schnellbomber used by Luftwaffe during World War II. Though essentially a straightforward modification of the Me 210, it was designated the Me 410 to avoid association with its notoriously flawed predecessor.-Design and...
Hornisse were all-new aircraft designs meant to replace the Bf 110, but also could not outrun contemporary single-engine fighters.
Towards the end of the war, the Dornier Do 335
Dornier Do 335
The Dornier Do 335 Pfeil was a World War II heavy fighter built by the Dornier company. The two-seater trainer version was also called Ameisenbär . The Pfeils performance was much better than other twin-engine designs due to its unique "push-pull" layout and the much lower drag of the in-line...
Pfeil could have been an ideal twin-engined Zerstörer fighter design for the Luftwaffe due to its center-line-thrust format, which placed its fuselage-mounted twin engines' propellers on opposing ends of the fuselage, and potentially allowed much better maneuverability, and did allow dramatically higher speeds (just over 750 km/h or 465 mph), than any other twin-piston-engined aircraft of its era, but like so many other advanced German aircraft designs that were actually produced by Germany late in the war, the Do 335 never had the chance to be produced in quantity.
Following the example set by the Bf 110, the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese built the broadly similar Kawasaki Ki-45
Kawasaki Ki-45
The Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu was a two-seat, twin-engine fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. The army gave it the designation "Type 2 Two-Seat Fighter"; the Allied reporting name was "Nick"....
. Likewise neutral Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
built the twin-boom Fokker G.I
Fokker G.I
The Fokker G.I was a Dutch heavy twin-engined fighter plane comparable in size and role to the German Messerschmitt Bf 110 and the British Mosquito. Although in production prior to World War II, its combat introduction came at a time when the Netherlands was overrun...
, only to be seized by the Luftwaffe after the German invasion of the Netherlands.
Britain
Perhaps in the belief that "The bomber will always get throughThe bomber will always get through
The bomber will always get through was a phrase used by Stanley Baldwin in 1932, in the speech "A Fear for the Future" to the British Parliament...
", the British lagged behind in its heavy fighter development. Apart from the Westland Whirlwind and Welkin
Westland Welkin
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Buttler, Tony. British Secret Projects: Fighters and Bombers 1935–1950. Hinckley, UK: Midland, 2004. ISBN 1-85780-179-2....
, built only in modest numbers, the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
's wartime heavy fighters were all adapted from earlier bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
s. During the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
, Bristol Blenheim
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
bombers were fitted, as an interim measure and in utmost secrecy, with radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
s and ventral gun packs, turning them into the RAF's first night fighters.
More successful was the Bristol Beaufighter
Bristol Beaufighter
The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter, often referred to as simply the Beau, was a British long-range heavy fighter modification of the Bristol Aeroplane Company's earlier Beaufort torpedo bomber design...
, which reused major portions of the earlier Beaufort
Bristol Beaufort
The Bristol Beaufort was a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber....
torpedo bomber
Torpedo bomber
A torpedo bomber is a bomber aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes which could also carry out conventional bombings. Torpedo bombers existed almost exclusively prior to and during World War II when they were an important element in many famous battles, notably the...
. Armed with six .303 inch machine guns, four 20 mm cannon and an assortment of bombs and rockets, the Beaufighter was potent in the anti-ship and ground attack role in the Pacific and Europe. With the addition of radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
, it was one of the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
's main night fighters. Similarly, the de Havilland Mosquito
De Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft that served during the Second World War and the postwar era. It was known affectionately as the "Mossie" to its crews and was also nicknamed "The Wooden Wonder"...
fast bomber was later adapted for both day and night fighter use.
United States
During the late 1930s, Bell AircraftBell Aircraft
The Bell Aircraft Corporation was an aircraft manufacturer of the United States, a builder of several types of fighter aircraft for World War II but most famous for the Bell X-1, the first supersonic aircraft, and for the development and production of many important civilian and military helicopters...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
designed the YFM-1 Airacuda "bomber destroyer". Very large and heavily armed, the Airacuda was plagued with design flaws; only 13 examples were eventually built, none of which participated in WWII.
The most successful heavy fighter of the war was the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. It was designed to carry heavy armament at high speed or long range. For a variety of reasons, notably its excellent turbocharger
Turbocharger
A turbocharger, or turbo , from the Greek "τύρβη" is a centrifugal compressor powered by a turbine that is driven by an engine's exhaust gases. Its benefit lies with the compressor increasing the mass of air entering the engine , thereby resulting in greater performance...
and its crew of one (rather than two or three), it dramatically outperformed its German and British counterparts. In service it was used as an escort fighter, following B-17 Flying Fortress raids deep into German-held Europe where it was able to hold its own with the much lighter German fighters. In its escort role, the P-38 was the first Allied fighter over Berlin. It was also highly successful in the Pacific theatre, where its long range proved a pivotal advantage. Expensive to produce and maintain, it was relegated to other roles when the single-engined but equally long-ranged P-51D Mustang
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...
reached squadrons.
Post-war
De Havilland Hornet
The de Havilland DH.103 Hornet was a piston engine fighter that further exploited the wooden construction techniques pioneered by de Havilland's classic Mosquito. Entering service at the end of the Second World War, the Hornet equipped postwar RAF Fighter Command day fighter units in the UK and was...
and Sea Hornet, and the F-82 Twin Mustang
F-82 Twin Mustang
The North American F-82 Twin Mustang was the last American piston-engine fighter ordered into production by the United States Air Force. Based on the P-51 Mustang, the F-82 was originally designed as a long-range escort fighter in World War II; however, the war ended well before the first...
. All were developed at the end of World War II for use in the Pacific theatre, though none reached operational squadrons until after VJ day, the Hornet in 1946, the Sea Hornet in 1947 and the Twin Mustang in 1948.
Although numerous modern fighters could be called "heavy", with regard to their weight, the term is generally no longer used.