When it comes to aerial combat, a new and improved warplane can make everything your opponent has in the air completely obsolete overnight. Japan’s “Zero” ruled the skies over the Pacific at the outset of World War II and the MiG-15 was dominant in the beginning of the Korean War, but United States defense contractors turned out faster, more agile, and more deadly planes like the F6F Hellcat or the F-86 Sabre and gave us air supremacy on such a level that it is as if owning the skies is an American birthright. These 20 aircraft didn’t make it to the production line, but without them we wouldn’t have pushed the design envelope and gained the technology that produced Super Hornets, Strike Eagles, stealth bombers, and even a Space Shuttle.
Grumman XF5F
If Pablo Picasso became an aircraft designer instead of an artist, Grumman’s X5F5 Skyrocket would have been his best work. Although it looked like a caricature of today’s A-10 Warthog – on drugs – it handled like a dream. In fact, it almost beat out a number of other prototypes and proven fighters during a 1941 competition for the Navy.
