Just to have some Yin with the Yang  , what are the 5 Best aircraft ever made and why?

1. Commercial /Cargo / Transport

2. General Aviation

3. Military Other

4. Military Fighters

5. Military Bombers

1. Commercial /Cargo / Transport

2. General Aviation

3. Military Other

4. Military Fighters & 5. Military Bomber

Title: FIGHTER EW.

Date: 7/1/2000; Publication: Journal of Electronic Defense; Author: Sweetman, Bill.

...

The fighter's classic tool for situational awareness -- a powerful search radar -- can render its stealth characteristics moot. The solution to this problem on the F-22 is sensor fusion. The principal sensors are the Northrop Grumman APG-77 radar and the Sanders ALR-94 passive receiver system.

One vital difference between an AESA and any other radar that has a single transmitter (including a passive electronically steered array) is that the AESA is capable of operating as several separate radars simultaneously. An AESA can change its beamform very readily, and its receiver segments can operate in a passive or receive-only mode. Unlike a mechanical antenna, too, its revisit rates are not constrained by the antenna drive, and it can concurrently revisit different points within its field of regard at different rates. The F-22 has space, weight and cooling provision for auxiliary side arrays on either side of the nose. If installed, these would provide radar coverage over almost 270[degrees]. The ALR-94, meanwhile, is the most effective passive system ever installed on a fighter. Tom Burbage, former head of the F-22 program at Lockheed Martin, has described it as "the most technically complex piece of equipment on the aircraft."

The F-22 has been described as an antenna farm. Indeed, it would resemble a signals-intelligence (SIGINT) platform were it not for the fact that the 30-plus antennas are all smoothly blended into the wings and fuselage. The ALR-94 provides 360[degrees] coverage in all bands, with both azimuth and elevation coverage in the forward sector.

A target which is using radar to search for the F-22 or other friendly aircraft can be detected, tracked and identified by the ALR-94 long before its radar can see anything, at ranges of 250 nm or more. As the range closes, but still above 100 nm, the APG-77 can be cued by the ALR-94 to search for other aircraft in the hostile flight. The system uses techniques such as cued tracking: since the track file, updated by the ALR-94, can tell the radar where to look, it can detect and track the target with a very narrow beam, measuring as little as 2[degrees] by 2[degrees] in azimuth and elevation. One engineer calls it "a laser beam, not a searchlight. We want to use our resources on the high-value targets. We don't track targets that are too far away to be a threat."

High-priority emitters -- such as fighter aircraft at close range -- can be tracked in real time by the ALR-94. In this mode, called narrowband interleaved search and track (NBILST), the radar is used only to provide precise range and velocity data to set up a missile attack. If a hostile aircraft is injudicious in its use of radar, the ALR-94 may provide nearly all the information necessary to launch an AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile (AAM) and guide it to impact, making it virtually an anti-radiation AAM.

NCTR is a highly classified area. One of the few known techniques is jet-engine modulation, which involves analyzing the raw radar return for the characteristic beat produced by a combination of the radar-pulse frequency and the rotating blades of the engine. This technique is already used on operational radars (including the APG-70 in the F-15) but is vulnerable to countermeasures and dependent on target aspect.

Other NCTR techniques involve very precise range measurements. If the target's orientation is known, the distribution of the signature over very small range bins can yield a range profile which is characteristic of a certain aircraft type. It is possible that the F-22, which has a great deal of onboard processing power -- as well as a flexible, frequency-agile radar -- is designed to use an NCTR technique of this kind.

Unlike the Eurofighter Typhoon , the F-22 does not have an electro-optical (EO) system for target identification. F-22 program managers have said consistently that they believe that the F-22 pilot will be able to identify any target -- emitting or not -- beyond visual range (BVR). "We are confident that we can demonstrate to our leadership that we know what's out there, and that we will operate with rules of engagement that reflect that fact," USAF program manager Gen Mike Mushala remarked at a conference in 1997.

The ALR-94 drives the F-22's defensive displays. The system determines the bearing, range and type of the threat, and then computes the distance at which the enemy radar can detect the F-22. The pilot is the decision-maker and is provided with timely, graphic information to guide defensive maneuvers. On the main defense display, usually shown on the left-hand screen in the cockpit, threat surface-to-air missile (SAM) and airborne early warning (AEW) radars are surrounded by circles that show their computed effective range. On the right-hand attack display, fighter radars are shown as blue beams extending towards the F-22's position.

http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-9268-start-0.html

1. Commercial /Cargo / Transport
747 family

2. General Aviation
An-2... SUV of the sky

3. Military Other

4. Military Fighters
Flanker NG (Su-30, Su-35, Su-37, Su-34). No matter if it has crappy dials or not, the plane is the same, and those steam gauges are there for a reason... they dont break at -40C, while LCD screens do

5. Military Bombers
Tu-160, par with B-1B

Su-47, perfection of a perfect design series, a real shame it never saw mass production.

Single engine. The navy doesn't want a small single engine plane, it wants big dual-engine fighters. If you lose that single engine, you're in big trouble.

Small payload. Internal, but very small.

Lack of cannon on some types.

Stealth is a plus, the the Raptor is stealthy, and even that has been 'killed' by a Super Hornet.

And then there's export. Any other countries buying the F-35 will most likely have to deal with degraded stealth and whatnot. Along with that, the software can only be upgraded by sending the plane back to the factory, because the countries can't get the key for it.

Great plane, but not necessary IMO...