F-15 and F-14. Attractive enough. Even then I was disappointed with the Tomcat's engine performance, but the Eagle look tough and powerful.
F-4. That the above replace. Clunky front end on the Phantom, but I love the lines on the empannage.
And the low part of High/Low. F-16 and F-17, later 18. The Hornet left me with meh, but the Falcon.
Just gorgeous lines, all round. Lookatit.
And, of course, all these airframes are still pretty much better than anything else out there. We could bring back the F-4 with just a little modification. Modernize the avionics and the engines, and it will work just fine if used to its strengths.
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It appears the F-4's Achilles heel is its hydraulics system. Most losses seem to involve it. When you have a triple redundant system, and it still kills the aircraft, you are doing it wrong.
Instead of building that idiotic F-35, I suspect we would have been better off to build the F-14 with composites. Probably be nearly as stealthy, and a better performer in ACM. The Navy needed to get over their aversion to hanging bombs on the Tomcat. It might still be around if they had done that. Hell, the Iranians figured it out. Actually, they were using US designed bomb setups on it. The Fighter Mafia couldn't be bothered.
I hear that they expect that stealth by shape will become a useless attribute in the not too distant future. Advances in radar will eliminate that ability. At that point, the F-35 becomes the most expensive and worthless aircraft in history.
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