History is biased in favour of the Tornado. There were not many air battles post WW2 and pre Tornado apart from Korea and not many will recall air battles from that period. Didn't the RAF use the Sabre in Korea? Purely on appearance the Sabre gets my vote.
I think its one of the ironies of history that some of the most impressive machines ever built and designed were never really tested in their intended role. The Vulcan springs to mind, as does the Phantom. The Phantom was flown by the US in Vietman, but interesting to speculate how it might have fared being piloted by Crab Airways
The Tornado is not a Fighter aircraft in the true sense. When I left school in 1966 and started my Aircraft engineering apprenticeship, which led to me working in the Toolroom on the tooling for the M.R.C.A. or Multi Role Combat Aircraft, that was later named the Tornado. Yes it is. The newspiece starting the topic concerns the Tornado F.3, the dedicated AA version of the Tornado. Specific radar, AA missiles only, no air-to-ground armament. I'd vote for the Phantom for oomph, for the Hunter for the 'ballerina' factor. Besides, the H. has a hack of a service record all over the world
