Reply #11: P stood for Pursuit

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What is the difference between pursuit and fighter planes?
In: Airplanes and Aircraft

fighter aircraft is general term for any aircraft that is designed to engage another aircraft in combat - pursuit aircraft are fighters designed for speed to be able intercept other aircraft such as intercepting bombers before they reach their target or "racing" to provide support - because pursuit aircraft have to be built to be faster than other aircraft, in the past they had to compromise agility and contolability for speed - modern jet fighters like the F-22 are capable of both speed and agility and therefore there is not enough difference to have a seperate catagory of pursuit fighter
the P-38 lightning of WWII was a very fast pursuit fighter, at least 2 are known to have hit the sound barrior in a dive (though they were destroyed doing so) but they were definitly not very agile with those twin props and booms - the peak of performance in pursuit fighters was the F-104 starfighter that was little more than a very large jet engine with short stubby wings and was incredibally fast - but it was very hard to control and fly and land - but it was designed to intercept russian bombers before they could reach the USA and it did that very well

The terms "pursuit" and "Fighter" were used by the US to describe aircraft types for the same role. The Army used the term "Pursuit", which was a term used by the british. The Navy used the term "Fighter" and the aircraft were assigned to fighter squadrons, known as VF (meaning Heavier-than-Air Fighter). Eventually, the Air Force adopted Fighter.