Post WWII USN Carrier Fighters (1945-2018)

Unlike my recent post on USN Carrier Aircraft of the Korean War,  this is not intended to be a detailed look at the individual aircraft types, but an overview of the timeline and production numbers to reveal larger trends. For simplicity's sake I will only be covering operational aircraft produced in reasonable numbers and ignoring early types such as the FH or F6U. I will also not be considering non-fighter variants such as photo-recon planes.

Gold represents years in production while blue represents years in service. Note: FJ does not include the FJ-1

As is well known, as time passed fewer aircraft were developed and those that were remained in service longer. However, somewhat unexpectedly, this change does not appear to have been a gradual one. Instead, there was an explosion of new aircraft when the jet age began, but after a decade things had slowed down to something similar to the modern pace of development.

From the F9F Panther to the F11F Tiger, fighters remained in production for an average of 6.8 years and remained in service for 8.9 years. In contrast, from the F8U Crusader to the F/A-18 Hornet, aircraft types were produced for an average of 18 years and remained in service for 29.3 years. Further, from 1950 to 1965, the Navy had an average of 6.6 different fighters in production or in service, while from 1965 to 2018, that number fell to just 2.7 types of fighters.

That this change was sudden rather than gradual is important because it implies that the reduction in aircraft types was not the result of outside factors such as declining budgets or increasing aircraft complexity, but rather a conscious choice. This would in turn mean that instead of being a sign of a healthy industry, the multiplicity of aircraft in the early jet age was the result of exploring new technology and hedging against failure (of which there was plenty). The early retirement of the F11F in favor of going all in on the F8U effectively marked the end of this period and the beginning of the modern mindset of developing a single aircraft at a time.

Post-WWII US Navy fighter production totals

The above chart covers only production fighters for the US Navy and the totals do not include prototypes, non-fighter variants, or foreign sales. The Cougar and Panther easily took the title of most produced post-war Navy fighters, with the Phantom close behind. However, forth place surprisingly went to the Fury - a plane that never saw combat and that has been massively overshadowed by its Air Force cousin, the F-86 Sabre. The fifth place position of the Crusader was also somewhat unexpected, given that it was the shortest-serving of the post-F11F fighters.

This chart also adds additional weight to the argument that fewer aircraft types could have been procured. The F7U, F4D, and F11F clearly added little capability to the fleet and arguably even the more numerous F2H and FJ could have been skipped in favor of producing more of the extremely successful F9F (note also that while the FJ-2 entered service in 1952, it was not until 1956 and the FJ-4 that the Fury became a truly viable carrier fighter - by which point it was outmatched by more recent designs). However, despite their small numbers, the F3D and F3H were likely irreplaceable given their all-weather capabilities (although the poor shipboard qualities of the F3D does undermine this somewhat).