...........Not many fighters left in active status , Airforce has the F15 , F16 and the F22 which is not in production and the F35 currently under development ! IF , you hear a very loud noise from a very small plane the aircraft is probably taking off with full power PLUS Afterburner , you know when the pilot turns off the afterburner because there will be an instantaneous reduction in noise level .
............Also , there is only one Large aircraft whose engines are equipped with after burners for takeoff and that would be the B1B , heavy bomber . It utilizes the same basic engine as the F15 and F16 , built by either GE or Pratt-Whitney . Now , the airforce still has a small fighter , two engine jobber that is capable of breaking the sound barrier at 710 knots or 816 mph , it was built by Northrup and has afterburning as well.......at one time it was the principal jet trainer for the airforce . The engines are very low thrust at around 1,400 lbs. of thrust each when compared with the 30,000 or so for the F16 . There is probably a smathering of older jet fighters kept in service by the Airforce like the F4 Phantom for various reasons .
.............The Navy , currently only has two basic fighters , The FA18 Hornet which has been moved to the Naval Reserve for the most part , and It's current fighter The......and I
can't recall it's official name.....Oh it's called the Super Hornet . It is equipped with 2-28,000 lb. thrust engines and is faster and larger than the FA 18 . The F14 was retired around 1992 or so . , That is all I can recall for now . , fordy
