Making models of planes as I have done for umpteen years is a good way to learn almost completely irrelevant things about them. Below, left to right, is an A-4 Skyhawk, a MiG-25 Foxbat, and an Avro Vulcan, all in 1:72 scale.
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I quite like the Foxbat. It has an old school design brutality about it. Developed in the 60's by the Soviets to counter a high speed bomber the US tested but never put into service, it is a pure interceptor rather than a multirole fighter.
Everything about the way it looks shouts 'speed above everything else'. The wing is a simple thin slab (with no aerodynamic concessions to manouvreability), built for speed. The engines are huge and powerful, again for speed. Capable of flying at nearly 3 times the speed of sound it was the only thing that could come close to intercepting the near mythical SR-71 Blackbird reconnaisance aircraft. It was the inspiration for the 'Firefox' novel and movie.
I like it from a design point of view because it is completely uncompromised. It is designed to do one thing and one thing only.
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