In the harsh arena of combat aviation, a fighter is made or broken in the fraction of a second between life and death. A tweak in the design can make an airplane a legend—consider the F-16 or the Spitfire. But a flawed design, hasty development, or ill-timed advent can send even a promising warbird to its grave. Across the decades, air forces have operated more than a few flops. Here are ten fighters that did not live up to expectations, beginning with the slightly disappointing and ending with the completely notorious.
10. Seversky P-35 (USA)
When the Seversky P-35 initially made its maiden flight during the 1930s, it seemed to be the next big thing—America’s first monoplane fighter made entirely of metal with retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit.
But by the start of WWII, the design was old news. Only 76 were produced for the Army Air Corps before production was halted. Those shipped to the Philippines were still in shipping crates, with Swedish-language manuals and metric gauges, when the Japanese invaded. With no armor, self-sealing tanks, or good firepower, the P-35s were quickly destroyed.
9. Messerschmitt Me-210 (Germany)
The Me-210 was to replace the Luftwaffe’s Me-110 heavy fighter. Rather, it was a poster child for overpromising and underdelivering. Full of high-tech features—gun turrets that could be controlled remotely, a streamlined cockpit—it still was as edgy to fly as a brick, with suicidal stall characteristics and little real performance improvement over the planes it was designed to replace.
The Luftwaffe stupidly ordered 1,000 before it even flew. Following 400 dismal units, the project was cancelled and its better follow-on received a new name (Me-410) to avoid bad publicity.
8. Focke-Wulf Ta-154 Moskito (Germany)
Germany’s night fighter, made of wood, was designed to equal Britain’s de Havilland Mosquito. The Ta-154 prototype was encouraging—until it was loaded with working equipment that stole its speed. Then Allied bombers blew up the factory manufacturing its unique resin glue.
The replacement adhesive ate away at the airframe, leading to fatal crashes. Around 50 were constructed before the concept was abandoned. In desperation, even the Luftwaffe floated converting them into kamikaze-style remotely controlled drones, but that never materialized.
7. Blackburn B-25 Roc (UK)
The Roc was a Royal Navy fighter that attempted to use a power-operated turret on a carrier aircraft. The idea was defective from the beginning. On a dive-bomber airframe, it was slow, heavy, and awkward—top speed 223 mph. Never saw frontline squadron duty and became a target tug or a stationary defense platform. And the floatplane version? Worse still.
6. Heinkel He-162 Salamander (Germany)
In the waning stages of WWII, Germany hurried this plywood jet off the assembly line as a “people’s fighter” for practically untrained pilots, including adolescents. Production was hasty and testing light. The He-162 was nervous, delicate, and susceptible to structural failure. More were destroyed in accidents than by enemy action. In the limited instances when it fought the Allies, it contributed very little.
5. Curtiss-Wright CW-21 Demon (USA)
Sold as the world’s fastest-climbing interceptor, the CW-21 was a light fighter built around a trainer plane. The U.S. military rejected it, but China and the Netherlands purchased a few. Against Japanese Zeros and Ki-43s, it had no chance, without armor and heavy guns. All Dutch CW-21s were destroyed within three months of Japan’s invasion of the East Indies, and the design disappeared into history.
4. Caudron C.714 (France)
France’s Caudron C.714 began as a racing aircraft and was then converted into a fighter. It was inexpensive to produce but weak, delicate, and ill-armed. Its fighting time in the air was preposterous—removed from squadron service after a week. Even Finland, with its need for fighters, rejected it. Polish pilots in France flew some of a handful, but the type’s service life was blessedly brief.
3. Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 (USSR)
Construced mainly of resin-coated plywood to conserve metal, the LaGG-3 was a clunky, underpowered aircraft with bad speed, climb performance, and maneuverability. Red Star pilots called it the “varnished guaranteed coffin.” Designer Semyon Lavochkin redeemed himself later by developing it into the much superior La-5, but the LaGG-3’s reputation was irretrievable.
2. Brewster F2A Buffalo (USA)
The Buffalo was a warning to naval aviators—too slow, too heavy, and cursed with shoddy production. Against the Zero, it was a lost cause. U.S. Marines at Midway nicknamed it the “Flying Coffin.” Only the Finns saw any success with it, and that was due more to Finnish fighting skills than to the aircraft’s merits.
Brewster’s efforts to license-produce the Corsair were an even greater debacle; none of those produced reached frontline combat, and the company went out of business in 1946.
1. McDonnell XF-85 Goblin (USA)
The Goblin wins the prize for pure weirdness. Developed as an airborne parasite fighter to be launched from a B-36 bomber, it was small, underpowered, and difficult to handle. Docking with the mothership in mid-air was all but impossible. Two were ever constructed, and the entire “airborne aircraft carrier” concept was abandoned. Now, the Goblin is a curiosity on the pages of history books—a testament to the fact that not all out-there ideas are meant to fly.
From poor timing and poor designs to hasty production and strategic failures, these ten planes demonstrate how quickly a warplane can move from promising prototype to aviation joke. For each of the enduring icons of the skies, there’s a machine that becomes a cautionary tale—and these are some of the most memorable flops.