Fighters and Bombers that didn't...

[Voldemort]

Are there any fighters or bombers that were never used in anger during their service life?

I know that, famously, were it not for the raid on the Falklands the Vulcan would have gone its' whole life 'unused'.

Did the Lightning see any active service ever? Any others?

[marksx]

Do you count interception flights as active service?

Or just where weapons are used?

[Fastdruid]

Voldemort said:

Did the Lightning see any active service ever? Any others?

If wikipedia is to be believed the Lightning only ever shot down one plane....A harrier where the pilot had ejected and was out of control heading for east germany.

[Eric Mc]

A lot of the 1920s and 1930s RAF and Royal Navy aircraft did not see any "action" i.e.dropping bombs on or shooting an enemy.

[DamienB]

Lightnings were used in combat by the Saudis, though air to ground.

[aeropilot]

Voldemort said:

Did the Lightning see any active service ever?

Depends what you mean by 'active service'.

If did it ever fire guns/missles in anger at an enemy, then no it didn't, well not in RAF service.

RSAF used them in anger in the ME, dropping bombs/SNEB pods on a few occasions.

[Dr Jekyll]

The Sea Vixen and Gloster Javelin qualify I believe. Also the Victor though it was used as a tanker on wartime operations.

[aeropilot]

Dr Jekyll said:

The Sea Vixen and Gloster Javelin qualify I believe. Also the Victor though it was used as a tanker on wartime operations.

Scimitar as well.

Ex-RAF Jav aircrew persistently claim a victory for the Jav though due to an incident during the Malayan crisis in the early sixties involving an Indonesian C-130 that crashed while trying to evade a RAF Javelin that had been sent to intercept it.

[Dr Jekyll]

B47 is an interesting case. Never used weapons in anger, but performed recon flights during the Vietnam war which presumably counted as combat, and did at least one recon out of a UK base which involved contact with Migs and coming back with damage from their cannon.

[Voldemort]

marksx said:

Do you count interception flights as active service?

Or just where weapons are used?

Good point. I wouldn't want to disparage the interceptor flights but I meant where guns/missiles were fired or bombs dropped in action.

[Eric Mc]

And were you talking about the RAF only?

Because there is also the Fleet Air Arm.

[aeropilot]

Eric Mc said:

And were you talking about the RAF only?

Because there is also the Fleet Air Arm.

Hence why we've mentioned the Sea Vixen and Scimitar.

I think the OP may have been talking about any aircraft though, which if so, would include things such as all the Saabs (Tunnen, Lansen, Draken and Viggen) as well as Convair's F-106 and B-58.

[Eric Mc]

As far as I know, the F-106 never shot anything down.

F-102s were sent to Vietnam for a short period but I don't think they did shoot anything down. However, Turks operated F-102s for a bit and they may have loosed off a few rounds at the Greeks.

I don’t think US F-101 Voodoos ever fired at anything either, but Taiwanese ones might have.

The Supermarine Attacker nor the Swift never shot anything down.

[lufbramatt]

Dr Jekyll said:

The Sea Vixen and Gloster Javelin qualify I believe. Also the Victor though it was used as a tanker on wartime operations.

Sea Vixens fired loads of rockets at ground targets in the Persian Gulf, they also supported ground troops in Africa and flew recce sorties in Aden in the late 60's.

[ChemicalChaos]

I'd nominate the Boeing P26 - despite being the first all metal monoplane fighter designed for the US, it was obsolete by the time they'd finished designing it and I think only 1 went into service

[Dr Jekyll]

ChemicalChaos said:

I'd nominate the Boeing P26 - despite being the first all metal monoplane fighter designed for the US, it was obsolete by the time they'd finished designing it and I think only 1 went into service

Obsolete yes and I don't think the US used them in combat. But one was used in the Spanish civil way (got shot down), a few in the Chinese-Japanese war, a few more in early WW2 and the last combat flights were in the mid 1950s.

[Eric Mc]

Well over 100 P-26s saw service with the USAAC (US Army Air Corps) and some were still in service when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Phillipines in December 1941. They definitely did get involved in the air fighting on December 7 1941.

[FourWheelDrift]

B-36 Peacemaker. And be very glad it never did.

[nikaiyo2]

I don't think any of these were used in combat

F7 Cutlass
F6 Pirate
F11 Tiger
A2 Skyshark

Not sure if the

B58 Hustler

or B36 Peacmaker were ever used in combat.

Also F14s were hardly ever used in anger were they?

[Eric Mc]

F-14s shot down some Libyan MiGs in 1989. They were also used extensively as ground attack aircraft in the second Gulf War (known as Bomb Cats).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpBFOYeJc6U

I'm sure the Iranians would have used their F-14s in the various tousles they had with Saddam Hussein's Iraq as well.

Edited by Eric Mc on Friday 2nd September 18:39