History UsefulNotes / PlaneSpotting

* '''Electronic Intelligence (ELINT)/Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT)''': Listening to non-communications signals, like radars and jammers, to try to identify and locate their sources, or figure out what they are doing.
* '''Communications Intelligence (COMINT)''': "Reading the enemy's mail" and "listening to their phone calls and radio traffic".

* '''Flying Boom"'': This is where the tanker aircraft has a long boom with a pipe in it, that is "flown" by an operator in the tanker, and connects to a small receptacle on the receiving aircraft. The advantages of this are that typically it allows a higher fuel flow rate, meaning more and larger planes can be serviced, it is easier on the pilot of the receiving aircraft, and the equipment required on the receiving aircraft is lighter and smaller. The chief disadvantages are that it requires dedicated large aircraft with specially trained operators, and it's impossible to use on helicopters, whose rotor blades would collide with the boom. This is the method of choice for the US Air Force, with it's fleet of large, fuel-hungry bombers and plenty of runway space for large dedicated tankers.

AsYouKnow, [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Knowing is half the battle]]. Reconnaissance was the first combat job undertaken by aircraft, and remains one of the most importance. Cameras have been used since the Great War, and remain the main plank of Recon to this day, though the cameras themselves have improved markedly. Some recon aircraft are purpose-built (think of "spy planes" like the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird), but most are adapted from fighters or bombers. Of the purpose-built ones, the SR-71 is designed to go really fast and really high, whereas the U-2 goes really ''slow'' and really high, having more in common with a glider than a powered aircraft. Nowadays, unmanned drone airplanes, helicopters and airships conduct surveillance in a variety of roles, ranging from hand-launched spyplanes to ultra-long-endurance high-altitude drone airships.

There are also ELINT ([=ELectronic INTelligence=]) aircraft, that listen in to communications or acquire radar information about the enemy.

Extending the range and endurance of other aircraft is very practical and these are very valuable "force multipliers". The US has by far the biggest fleet of these, although some other nations have a few. Converted from airliners, generally, they refuel other aircraft in-flight. This is not a 100% successful activity (one reason why this was never adopted for commercial aviation, despite some experiments). Examples include the KC-135 [=StratoTanker=] (a modified Boeing 707), the KC-10 Extender (a modified Douglas DC-10) and the Russian Il-78 "Midas". There are a number of methods of doing this.

Some ground attack aircraft and fighters carry "buddy stores", allowing to refuel other aircraft. Historically that's a Russian thing, as their tanker force has been historically poor, but it's also popular among naval users, since it reduces how many different airframes the carrier must keep and maintain aboard.

Conventional fighter v. fighter combat has been rare in recent years.

In fiction, airships in the military are often portrayed as AwesomeButImpractical. However, their actual military role has been more BoringButPractical. This wasn't necessarily true in the early days of UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, because Zeppelins and airships were pressed into sometimes spectacular roles due to the simple nonexistence of alternative aircraft. They were used as heavy bombers, flying out in armadas to bomb cities. Even more spectacularly, they are the only aircraft capable of being a true AirborneAircraftCarrier. But their more common usage was to escort shipping, hunt submarines and conduct long naval patrols. Eventually their Hydrogen weakness was exploited by the invention of the incendiary bullet, and airships' true value as a defensive rather than offensive weapon was developed, in conjunction with the use of non-flammable Helium. By [=WW2=], airships were used to great effect, and continued to due so well into the cold war.

* '''Air Superiority Fighters''' - These replaced nearly all other types of fighters by basically combining their roles. An air superiority fighter is designed to destroy enemy aircraft exclusively with no provision for ground attack or anything else. Most have high speed, high maneuverability, a heavy missile load, a powerful radar, long range, and a gun for backup, enabling them to effectively combat enemy aircraft under any circumstances. If a modern fighter is not a strike fighter, it's probably one of these.

* Interceptors: As the name might suggest, these are fighters optimized for intercepting incoming attacks by enemy aircraft and preventing them from reaching or effectively damaging their targets. Frequently, speed and climbing ability were emphasized on interceptors at the expense of maneuverability, since it was assumed their targets would mostly be lumbering bombers; operational range was sometimes sacrificed since it was assumed they'd be taking off from bases near the places they would be defending and thus the enemy would come to them. Now a mostly obsolete type, as there are few heavy bombers left to target and any aircraft with the right radar and missiles can perform the role.
* Night Fighters: These had a bit of a heyday in the late interwar period until the 1950s or so. The need for a specialized fighter for operations at night only really makes sense when heavy, specialized equipment was necessary to work in the dark. Early radars were large, heavy and imprecise; navigating at night required special equipment and skills; and accurately aiming a gun in the dark was difficult at best even if you could find the target, so they were often multi-engine aircraft with turrets, radars, and/or upward-firing machine guns. Once radars shrank and began being mounted on nearly every fighter, with radar-controlled gunsights or missiles, these became obsolete as any fighter could fight in the dark.
* Escort Fighters: These are a counter to interceptors; they're designed to go with ground attack aircraft or bombers as an escort and defend them from enemy fighters. While maneuverability and firepower were still important, the key aspects these fighters emphasized was range and the ability to fight at high altitude alongside their charges. Now an obsolete type as disposable "drop" fuel tanks and mid-air refueling tanker aircraft can give almost any aircraft the same range as a traditional bomber.
* Strike Fighters: Also called "multi-role" or "fighter/attack", these are aircraft designed both for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat. Often compromises needed to be made in design to enable both mission sets, but with modern precision-guided weapons this matters much less than it once did: Maneuverability no longer needs to be compromised to increase payload since precision guidance allows for fewer weapons to kill the same number of targets; armor need not be included in the design because standoff weapons keep the aircraft away from ground fire; and modern modular systems allow one aircraft to carry a wide variety of munitions on standardized hardpoints loaded out however the mission requires. Thus, this is one of the most common types today as it is more efficient to only have one type of aircraft that can do many missions than multiple specialized fleets.
* Air Superiority Fighters: These replaced nearly all other types of fighters by basically combining their roles. An air superiority fighter is designed to destroy enemy aircraft exclusively with no provision for ground attack or anything else. Most have high speed, high maneuverability, a heavy missile load, a powerful radar, long range, and a gun for backup, enabling them to effectively combat enemy aircraft under any circumstances. If a modern fighter is not a strike fighter, it's probably one of these.
* Naval and Navalized Fighters: Both are aircraft designed to fight over the sea, launching and recovering from ships; the former is designed for that role from the outset and the latter has been converted from a ground-based aircraft. They may also simultaneously fit into any of the above categories, as long as they can also operate from ships. The key difference is the equipment for launch and recovery aboard ship must be included, whether this is catapult tow bars, arresting tailhooks, or floats for water landing. Often this extra weight and sometimes drag reduces a naval aircraft's performance compared to its land-based rivals, but it's considered a reasonable tradeoff for the ability to essentially park an airbase in any part of the ocean. As there's limited shipboard space even on the largest of aircraft carriers, naval fighters (with some exceptions) tend to be generalists to prevent having to crowd too many different types of aircraft on each ship and simplify logistics many miles from shore. And occasionally, a naval fighter's design is so successful that it becomes a common land-based aircraft as well.

** There is significant criticism against the USA for marketing the F-35 as an air superiority fighter. Sure it can do the job, but compared to even fourth generation fighters (especially upgraded 4++ generation Sukhois) it's woefully underpowered - both in terms of thrust as well as turning rate, neither of which matter in modern air to air combat. What it does have is stealth, an advanced sensor suite, and networking capabilities that far outstrip the Russian and Chinese offerings. Which is not that surprising since it was developed under the Joint ''Strike'' Fighter program.

* Light Transports - Single-engined workhorses like the still-used Antonov An-2 "Colt", a biplane powered by a single massive radial engine (piston power) and twin-engine small transports like the venerable C-47 Skytrain (Military version of the Douglas DC-3 Dakota, one of the most revered designs in all of aviation), and more recently turboprop planes similar to the small prop airliners used now for short-distance commercial flights, and biz-jet sized transports, these planes are for small loads. Not a lot of capacity but the things are dependable and effective. Basically the aviation equivalent to a moving-van. These aircraft carry no more than a few tons.

* Medium Freighter - Bigger than the light transport, but still able to operate from rough, short, unpaved or otherwise "rugged" airfields, this class is one of the few that can be truly described as synonymous with a single aircraft: the legendary Lockheed C-130 Hercules. Aviation's answer to the P-1000 heavy mail van (the type of van UPS uses). Tough and noisy but it gets the packages delivered. These aircraft usually carry 15-35 tons of cargo, the legendary Hercules can carry 22.

* Tactical Heavy Airlifter - Despite the name, a class with freight capacity roughly equal to the Medium Freighter, but can travel a longer distance before needing to refuel. The C-17 could be considered an example of this, or the now-retired Lockheed C-141 [=StarLifter=]. Sometimes used to transport a LOT of personnel at once. In the road vehicle weight comparison, one of these for personnel transport is the aviation version of a Greyhound bus.

* Strategic Heavy Airlifter - This one is the ''true'' heavy airlifter. Very few of these exist. The C-5 Galaxy for the Western World, and the Russian counterpart, the Antonov An-124 "Condor". Aviation counterpart to the semi-truck (a Lorry if you're British). These aircraft carry anything in the range of 70-150 tons. Recently, the development of Hybrid Airships(airships that are partially heavier-than-air, like a plane) in both DARPA and the Army, has shaken up the Strategic Heavy Airlifter niche, with their highly useful capability of carrying 2-5 ''hundred'' of tons of supplies and landing on any flat surface, all rather economically, albeit slowly.

* Special Purpose Superheavy Airlifter - Considered by some to merely be a subcategory of the Strategic Heavy Airlifter, this category is primarily the realm of extensively-modified Strategic Heavy Airlifters like the two C-5 Galaxy aircraft modified by NASA to aid in transporting heavy rocket parts, and of "one-off" planes built as derivatives of existing types (such as the Myaschischev VM-T "Atlant" (never given a NATO ReportingName) or its eventual replacement, the truly massive six-engined Antonov An-225 Mriya (known to NATO as the "Cossack")(sadly destroyed during the Russo-Ukrainian war). These planes are built to hoist aloft freight that even a Strategic Heavy Airlifter would struggle to carry. Due to how unusual such missions are, these planes are never built in large numbers.

Some ground attack aircraft and fighters carry "buddy stores", allowing to refuel other aircraft. More a Russian thing, as their tanker force has been historically poor.

Helicopters, in their own way, fill many of the same niches that fixed-wing airplanes do, with a few exceptions. Helicopters rarely, if ever, engage in air to air combat, being designed primarily for air-to-surface roles. Also, there is a practical size limitation for how big you can make a helicopter before it's more trouble than it's worth, so they don't get used for strategic airlift. They can do a few tricks that most airplanes can't do, including hovering in place or sling-loading bulky cargo underneath them. In various navies, they have replaced most ASW airships, and can hunt submarines or use their radar equipment from high altitudes to give the fleet a better ability to detect incoming threats, sometimes even going so far as to [[TakingTheBullet act as decoys to draw anti-ship missiles away]] from the fleet.

* Special Purpose Superheavy Airlifter - Considered by some to merely be a subcategory of the Strategic Heavy Airlifter, this category is primarily the realm of extensively-modified Strategic Heavy Airlifters like the two C-5 Galaxy aircraft modified by NASA to aid in transporting heavy rocket parts, and of "one-off" planes built as derivatives of existing types (such as the Myaschischev VM-T "Atlant" (never given a NATO ReportingName) or its eventual replacement, the truly massive six-engined Antonov An-225 Mriya (known to NATO as the "Cossack"). These planes are built to hoist aloft freight that even a Strategic Heavy Airlifter would struggle to carry. Due to how unusual such missions are, these planes are never built in large numbers.