10 Smallest Jet Fighters

Pint-sized pugilists or trivial pursuits?

If you were in an aerial ‘dogfight’, would you rather be in a 25-ton Tu-128 or a four-ton Northrop F-5? The Tu-128 is as long as the world’s longest bus—the Volvo Gran Artic 300; the F-5’s wingspan is even smaller than a Spitfire’s. Fighters once tended to be small. Today, things have changed—a Sukhoi Su-30 is just under a metre shorter than a B-17. Still, jets like the Gripen and Tejas show the lightweight fighter isn’t dead, but even they were too big for our list. We set out to find the smallest jet fighters. Here they are!

10: De Havilland Vampire

Length: 9.37m

Wingspan: 12m

De Havilland’s magnificent Mosquito had proved that a fast, light aircraft could achieve far more than you might expect. Jet propulsion offered even more exciting opportunities for this minimalist approach, and de Havilland’s Vampire, which first flew as early as 1943, was a stunning example of potency in a small package.

Phenomenally fast and well-armed with four nose-mounted Hispano 20-mm cannon, with the ability to carry bombs or rockets, the Vampire was an impressive fighter. Yet, its empty weight was a mere 2,890 kg, roughly equivalent to that of a Toyota Land Cruiser.

The first mass-produced British single-engine jet fighter was a deceptively cute little jet that the average person could look down upon while it’s parked and count every rivet without having to strain. For comparison, the twin-engined Gloster Meteor was well over a ton heavier in max load-out configuration.

Standing less than 2.8 metres tall, the Vampire was extremely diminutive (a contemporary Spitfire was over four metres tall). The Vampire, with its distinctive twin booms, was an excellent design that led to the Venom and the larger, radically different Sea Vixen.

9: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9 ‘Fargo’

Length: 9.75 m

Wingspan: 10 m

The MiG-9 emerged in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, when the Soviet Union rushed to catch up with jet propulsion technology. Borrowing heavily from captured German research and designs, it became the USSR’s first operational jet fighter. Introduced in 1946, it marked a pivotal transition from piston to jet power.

What’s striking about the MiG-9 was its compactness. With a wingspan just over 10 metres and a length under 10, it looked more like a scaled-down prototype than a front-line fighter. Its uncluttered design, combined with twin RD-20 turbojets (Soviet-produced BMW 003s made from captured blueprints), gave it decent speed for its time. However, it struggled with engine reliability and high-altitude performance.

Deployed in limited numbers within the Soviet Air Force, it quickly became obsolete. Dogged by technical issues and outclassed by emerging Western jets, it was soon dramatically eclipsed by more advanced designs, notably the superb Soviet MiG-15 and US F-86. By the early 1950s, it was withdrawn from service. Around 610 aircraft were produced.

After the MiG-9, the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau refocused and rapidly improved its jet technology. Their breakthrough came with the swept-wing MiG-15 (powered by the Klimov VK-1 based on the British Nene), which shocked its enemies in Korea. The MiG-9's teething problems served as a valuable education that paved the way for the legendary MiG jets that followed.

8: Bréguet 1001 Taon

Length: 12.52 m

Wingspan: 7.83 m

The sleek Taon (‘Horsefly’) was designed in response to a 1953 NATO requirement for a lightweight strike fighter, or LWSF. This common NATO requirement was an attempt to create a common aircraft to maximise production efficiency, ease international collaboration and keep costs down. Though a sound idea, it clashed with national interests.

The Taon was a French aircraft, part of France's remarkable aviation renaissance of the 1950s. The concept of a common strike fighter was abandoned, with several countries developing their own (Italy’s Fiat G91 was designed for the same requirement and enjoyed export success), the French preferring the much larger Dassault Étendard VI.

The Taon was impressively fast. It set an international speed record for a 1,000 km (620 mi) closed circuit, reaching 1,046.65 km/h (650.36 mph) at 7,620 m (25,000 ft) on April 25 1958. On July 23, it achieved an even better speed of 1,075 km/h (667.98 mph).

The Bréguet 1001 Taon was powered by two Bristol Siddeley Orpheus turbojets (as had two other LWSF finalists). The Taon was not a wasted effort, however, as it informed the design of the Anglo-French supersonic training aircraft that morphed into the SEPECAT Jaguar strike aircraft.

7: Lavochkin La-15 ‘Fantail’

Length: 9.56 m

Wingspan: 8.83 m

During the Second World War, Lavochkin was highly successful, producing effective and widely used fighter aircraft, such as the LaGG-3 and, in particular, the La-5 and La-7. These planes were flown by top Soviet aces and played a crucial role on the Eastern Front, boosting Soviet air power and challenging German air superiority.

It was natural that Lavochkin would be a prime candidate for the creation of a new fighter jet. The idea of a jet fighter with a shoulder-mounted swept wing and high tailplane was not uncommon in the late 1940s. German designer Kurt Tank got the ball rolling with his earlier proposed Focke-Wulf Ta 183, later bringing the concept to fruition in Argentina with the IAe 33 Pulqui II.

Lavochkin La-15 ‘Fantail’

The Soviets reached the same conclusion with the Lavochkin La-168, a derivative of the first Soviet fighter to feature swept wings. The slightly smaller production variant, the La-15, had the misfortune of going up against the MiG-15, which, though less manoeuvrable than the Lavochkin product, had a better rate of climb and was less complex and less expensive to produce.

Following the La-15, the Lavochkin design bureau gradually shifted focus away from jet fighter development. Competition from Mikoyan-Gurevich's MiG series, particularly the MiG-15, led to Lavochkin losing prominence in Soviet aviation. Eventually, the company transitioned to missile and space technologies, making significant contributions to Soviet rocketry and air defence systems.

6: Helwan HA-300

Length: 12.4m

Wingspan: 5.84m

This sleek fighter may have been the last aircraft to be designed by Willy Messerschmitt, but it’s not German. What was originally intended to be a Spanish aircraft, which was cancelled due to budgetary reasons, was acquired by Egypt. The aforementioned HA-300 designator was simply adapted from ‘Hispano Aircraft’ to ‘Helwan Aircraft’, referring to the Egyptian city in which it was built.

In addition to the aircraft, Egypt embarked on the development of an indigenous engine, the Brandner E-300, to replace the Bristol Siddeley Orpheus used in the first two prototypes, citing national security concerns, particularly in the wake of the Suez attacks by Britain and Israel. India helped to finance the engine, as they wanted to use it in their HF-24 Marut strike fighter.

The design was supersonic. It first flew on March 7, 1964, and achieved a speed of Mach 1.13 during testing. It was likely capable of higher speeds. Had the promised Brandner E-300 engine, designed by Ferdinand Brandner (who led the design of the massive NK-12 turboprop that powers the Tu-95 Bear bomber), proved a success, the aircraft would have reached Mach 2.1.

It was tiny, with a wingspan roughly equal to the length of a Panzer VI tank. It was, in many ways, a good design, unsurprisingly, considering Messerschmitt’s design experience, which included such famously successful designs as the Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Sadly, for this promising design, a confluence of factors, including threats against the German and Austrian engineers in addition to the usual financial difficulties, meant that only seven were produced, and the Egyptians ended up settling for Soviet warplanes. This promising design by one of the greatest aircraft designers was cancelled in 1969.

5: Early Yak jets (Yak-15, Yak-17, Yak-23)

Length 8.7m

Wingspan 9.2m (Yak-15)

Soviet fighters in the Second World War were generally smaller than their Allied counterparts. Designed for agility, simplicity, and ease of production, aircraft like the Yakovlev series (and La-5) prioritised performance in close-range combat. Their compact size suited the Eastern Front’s demands, emphasising manoeuvrability and ruggedness over range or heavy armament.

Yakovlev would apply this approach to their first jet aircraft. First flown less than a year after VE Day, the Yak-15 came into being by shoving a reverse-engineered Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet into the front end of a Yak-3 piston fighter. This aircraft, which, along with the MiG-9, was one of the Soviet Union’s first jet fighters, would become the father of a line of diminutive fighters.

Early Yak jets (Yak-15, Yak-17, Yak-23)

The related Yak-17, first flown in 1947, replaced the taildragger landing gear kept from the WWII fighter with a more appropriate tricycle undercarriage, while the improved Yak-23, also first flown in 1947, replaced the reverse-engineered German engine with a reverse-engineered British one.

By the end of the 1960s, Yakovlev had been pushed out of the conventional fighter design game by Sukhoi and MiG, but would go on to create the Sea-Harrier-like Yak-38 and ambitious fully supersonic Yak-41 Short-Take-Off Vertical Landing aircraft that failed to go into production due to the demise of the USSR.

4: Aerfer Ariete

Length: 9.6m

Weight: 7.5m

The Ariete (‘Ram’) was developed for the same ultimately abandoned program as the Taon. It was a refinement of the earlier Sagittario 2 light fighter prototype. What made the Ariete unique was its unusual propulsion system, combining a main engine with an auxiliary unit for enhanced high-speed performance during flight.

Its primary engine was a Rolls-Royce Derwent turbojet, mounted with an exhaust under the fuselage midpoint. To supplement this, an auxiliary Rolls-Royce RS.2 Soar turbojet was added. This secondary engine featured a retractable air intake on the rear fuselage and exhausted through the tail, an uncommon layout that differentiated it from other aircraft of its time.

CREDIT: JIM SMITH

This unusual twin-powerplant configuration improved the Ariete’s performance, especially for take-off and climbing, and had it seen service, escaping enemy fighters. However, it shared a similar fate with the French aircraft it competed against. The project failed to gain traction and was abandoned before reaching production readiness or military service.

Only two prototypes of the Ariete were ever completed. A planned version called the Leone, which would have incorporated rocket-assisted propulsion for even higher speeds, remained on the drawing board.

3: Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger

Length: 9.05m

Wingspan: 7.02m

During World War II, Heinkel, a German aircraft manufacturer, produced military aircraft for the Nazi regime, including bombers like the much-used Heinkel He 111. The company played a key role in supplying the Luftwaffe. Heinkel also exploited forced labour, contributing to Germany's war efforts under the control of the Third Reich.

The Heinkel He 162 was remarkably small and compact, designed for rapid production using non-strategic materials. Its distinctive features included a top-mounted jet engine, wooden airframe, and sleek, aerodynamic shape. Intended as a "Volksjäger" or people's fighter, it prioritised speed and simplicity, though it suffered from instability and mechanical issues.

Born in Nazi Germany’s desperate last days, the tiny Heinkel He 162 ‘Volksjäger’ was born of the hope that a mass-produced cheap and highly advanced design could defend against the hundreds of Allied bombers and their escorts pummelling Germany.

Going from conception to first flight in only three months, it was an extremely innovative design. It combined the new technologies of jet propulsion and the ejection seat. It was intended that it would be flown by young, fanatical men (and boys). Though an impressive achievement, it was too late to have much effect and very dangerous. It did, however, reach an amazing 550mph.

2: Folland Gnat

Length: 8.94 m

Wingspan: 7.14 m

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folland_Gnat#/media/File:Folland_Gnat_G-39-2.jpg

Teddy Petter designed the Folland Gnat as a lightweight, agile fighter to counter rising aircraft costs. Prioritising simplicity, speed, and low weight, he rejected large, bulky, complex designs. The Gnat’s small size reduced cost, increased manoeuvrability, and suited short-range missions. Petter believed affordability and performance could coexist in modern air combat.

Although the Gnat was not used in a fighter role by its country of origin, the United Kingdom, it was used by Finland and India. It saw significant combat service with the latter operator. In Indian service, it earned a fearsome reputation, where it effectively engaged opposing aircraft such as the respected F-86 Sabre.

The Folland Gnat fighter used the compact Bristol Orpheus turbojet engine, delivering respectable thrust for its size. Armed with two 30mm Aden cannons, it also packed serious firepower. Its lightweight and short wingspan gave it an astonishingly high roll rate, and it was highly manoeuvrable; this and its small size made it one of the most challenging dogfight opponents of its time.

The Indians liked it so much that they created an improved variant, the Ajeet. The Gnat is most famous, in Britain, as the mount of the Red Arrows team. In the U.S., it is perhaps best known as the fictional Oscar EW-5894 Phallus Tactical Fighter Bomber, which featured in the 1991 Top Gun parody Hot Shots!

1: McDonnell XF-85 Goblin

Length: 4.52 m

Wingspan: 6.43 m

The Convair B-36 was the largest bomber ever built, boasting sixteen 20-mm cannons across the nose, tail, and retractable turrets. Despite its formidable firepower, there were underlying concerns about its actual defensive capabilities, suggesting that sheer size and armament alone might not ensure effective protection in combat.

The B-36 was possessed of such enormous range that a conventional escort fighter would be impractical; however, taking along a parasite fighter to chase off any hostile aircraft impertinent enough to attempt an interception was an entirely different matter. Hence, the existence of the XF-85 Goblin, by a considerable margin, the smallest jet fighter ever to fly.

McDonnell XF-85 Goblin

Opinions were divided as to the practicality of the F-85/B-36 combination. Designed by a team led by Herman D. Barkey, who would later oversee the development of McDonnell’s slightly more successful F-4 Phantom, the tiny McDonnell was an extremely well-executed response to the parasite requirement. Nonetheless, its ability to adequately defend its mothership, or even itself, is open to question.

The ghoulishly ugly Goblin featured folding wings and no undercarriage, relying instead on the mothership’s trapeze mechanism. Under pressure to curtail spending, the USAF cancelled the XF-85 project, citing its relatively modest performance and the high level of pilot skill required to reattach the aircraft to its carrier. This was the end for the egg-like Goblin.

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