Day fighter
Encyclopedia
A day fighter is a fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...

 equipped only to fight during the day. More specifically, it refers to a multi-purpose aircraft that does not include equipment for fighting at night (such as a radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

 and specialized avionics
Avionics
Avionics are electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft.Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems and the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to meet individual roles...

), although it is sometimes used to refer to some interceptors
Interceptor aircraft
An interceptor aircraft is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically to prevent missions of enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Interceptors generally rely on high speed and powerful armament in order to complete their mission as quickly as possible and set up...

 as well.

Examples of planes that were classified as day fighters were the Supermarine Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...

 and Messerschmitt Bf 109
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...

. Both were excellent interceptors, but were also found in roles such as fighter-bomber
Fighter-bomber
A fighter-bomber is a fixed-wing aircraft with an intended primary role of light tactical bombing and also incorporating certain performance characteristics of a fighter aircraft. This term, although still used, has less significance since the introduction of rockets and guided missiles into aerial...

 and reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....

. However, neither was really able to be used as a useful night fighter
Night fighter
A night fighter is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility...

, so the term day fighter was used to describe designs of this sort.

As the size and weight of night fighting equipment remained considerable in comparison to airframe size and engine power, the day fighter remained a part of front line air forces into the 1960s. In the immediate post-war era, designs like the F-86 Sabre
F-86 Sabre
The North American F-86 Sabre was a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as America's first swept wing fighter which could counter the similarly-winged Soviet MiG-15 in high speed dogfights over the skies of the Korean War...

, MiG-15 and Hawker Hunter
Hawker Hunter
The Hawker Hunter is a subsonic British jet aircraft developed in the 1950s. The single-seat Hunter entered service as a manoeuvrable fighter aircraft, and later operated in fighter-bomber and reconnaissance roles in numerous conflicts. Two-seat variants remained in use for training and secondary...

 typified the day fighter role. These were followed by similar supersonic
Supersonic
Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...

 designs in the early 1960s, including the F-104 Starfighter
F-104 Starfighter
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force by Lockheed. One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard units...

 and MiG-21 Fishbed.

However, as the size of basic fighters grew, along with their engine power, the relative cost of carrying night fighting equipment fell until most designs carried such equipment. Lightweight fighters without full night equipment such as the F-5 Freedom Fighter/Tiger II
F-5 Freedom Fighter
The Northrop F-5A/B Freedom Fighter and the F-5E/F Tiger II are part of a family of widely-used light supersonic fighter aircraft, designed and built by Northrop...

 are still used by nations which lack the money to acquire advanced fighter aircraft.

The last of the purpose-designed day fighters were the original F-16 and the YF-17 that competed for the Lightweight Fighter contract which had the goal of providing the USAF with an inexpensive day fighter that could be purchased in great numbers to establish air superiority. The designs originated in a mid-1960s effort known as the "Advanced Day Fighter". Ironically, after winning the contract the F-16 quickly matured into a much more capable multi-role aircraft and can no longer be considered a day fighter. Likewise, the YF-17 evolved into the much larger F/A-18, which is now the U.S. Navy's premiere all-weather combat aircraft.
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