Fighter jet generations explained: from the Me 262 to stealth

Fighter jets are grouped into five generations, each defined by a leap in technology rather than a date: first the jet engine itself, then supersonic speed and missiles, then radar-guided multirole combat, then agility and digital controls, and finally stealth and sensor fusion. A sixth generation is in development now.

The Jet Fighters coloring book follows the same road. You start with the Me 262, fly through the first all-jet battles over Korea, break the sound barrier, stand Cold War alert, dogfight over Vietnam and finish in the stealth era, with a caption giving the date and the context on every page.

The first generation runs from 1944 to the mid-1950s. These fighters swapped propellers for jet engines but kept guns as their main weapon and flew below or just around the speed of sound. The Messerschmitt Me 262 led the way in 1944, with Britain’s Gloster Meteor entering service the same summer.

The Me 262 was roughly a hundred miles an hour faster than any piston fighter it met, yet it arrived too late and in too few numbers to change the war. Early jet engines also lasted only hours between overhauls.

The decisive first-generation fight came over Korea. Swept-wing American F-86 Sabres and Soviet MiG-15s clashed along the Yalu River in an area pilots called MiG Alley, in the first battles fought between jets on both sides.

Both scenes are in the Jet Fighters book: the Me 262 that opens the jet age and the Sabre against the MiG over Korea. Jet combat built on air fighting that started over the Western Front in 1914, which our WW1 timeline follows year by year.

The second generation, from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, broke the sound barrier in level flight. Afterburners, thinner wings and the area rule made supersonic speed routine, and the first air-to-air missiles, such as the heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder, joined the gun. Radar became standard for interception.

The road there opened on October 14, 1947, when Chuck Yeager took the Bell X-1 past Mach 1. Six years later the North American F-100 Super Sabre became the first US Air Force fighter that could fly supersonic in level flight.

Then came the needle-nosed F-104 Starfighter, the first fighter to reach Mach 2, and the delta-winged MiG-21, built in greater numbers than any other supersonic jet: more than 10,000 of them. The Jet Fighters book gives Yeager’s record flight its own page.

Third-generation fighters, from the 1960s to the early 1970s, were built for radar-guided missile combat beyond visual range and for multirole missions. Vietnam showed the limits: early missiles often failed at close range, and the F-4 Phantom II first flew without an internal gun. Pilots had to relearn dogfighting.

The F-4 did almost everything: Navy fleet defense, Air Force strike, reconnaissance. But rules of engagement often forced pilots to identify targets visually, which pulled fights into the close range where missiles of the day were weakest.

The answer came in two parts. The F-4E added an internal M61 cannon, and the US Navy opened its Fighter Weapons School, better known as Top Gun, in 1969 to teach air combat maneuvering again. The Jet Fighters book shows that dogfight revival over Vietnam.

Fourth-generation fighters, flying from the mid-1970s onward, were designed around agility. High thrust-to-weight ratios, look-down shoot-down radar, head-up displays and, on many, fly-by-wire controls let them out-turn earlier jets and still fight with missiles. The F-15, F-16, F/A-18, MiG-29 and Su-27 define the class.

Much of the thinking came from John Boyd’s energy-maneuverability theory, which measured how well a fighter trades speed for turns. The F-15 Eagle, in service from 1976, was built for air superiority, and the F-16 brought fly-by-wire controls to a production fighter.

Generation 4.5 covers later designs and upgrades with AESA radar, datalinks and reduced radar signature: the Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Gripen and the Super Hornet. Air forces plan to keep many of them flying for decades.

The Jet Fighters book includes iconic fourth-generation jets such as the F-15. Its fine panel lines and twin tails reward a sharp pencil and patience.

A fifth-generation fighter is built to be hard to see on radar from the drawing board up. Shaping, coatings and internal weapons bays keep its signature low, while sensor fusion merges radar, infrared and datalink feeds into one picture for the pilot. The F-22 entered service in 2005, followed by the F-35, J-20 and Su-57.

The idea was proven earlier by the F-117 Nighthawk. Despite its F designation it was an attack aircraft, operational in 1983 and kept secret until 1988, but its faceted shape showed that invisibility to radar could matter more than speed.

The F-22 adds supercruise, sustained supersonic flight without afterburner. The F-35 trades some of that performance for its sensors and comes in three versions, including one that lands vertically. The Jet Fighters book ends its journey on this stealth revolution, with the F-117 and the B-2 Spirit.

Sixth-generation fighters are still in development, and none has entered service. The programs aim for wider stealth, more powerful sensors and networks, and a crewed fighter that commands uncrewed drones flying beside it. The US Air Force picked Boeing’s F-47 in 2025, while Europe builds GCAP and FCAS.

GCAP brings together Britain, Italy and Japan, with a target date in the mid-2030s. FCAS, led by France, Germany and Spain, aims for around 2040. The US Navy runs its own program for a carrier fighter.

The images released so far are artist’s impressions, so nobody outside the programs knows exactly what these jets will look like. For now the sixth generation is still a pencil sketch, which is fitting.

You can often name a fighter’s generation at a glance. First-generation jets have nose intakes and bare metal, second-generation needle noses and delta wings, third-generation big side intakes and Vietnam camouflage, fourth-generation twin tails and soft grays, and fifth-generation faceted edges, sawtooth panels and a dark, matte gray.

Paint tells the story too. The Me 262 wore mottled Luftwaffe greens. Korean War Sabres flew in polished natural metal. Over Vietnam, US Air Force Phantoms wore a tan and two-green camouflage made for the jungle.

From the mid-1970s, air-superiority grays took over, chosen to blend into the sky. Stealth aircraft went darker and flatter: the F-117 almost black, the F-22 and F-35 in grays that hide radar-absorbent coatings.

When you color, follow the era. Build bare metal with layered grays and a little blue, leave white paper for the glint on the canopy, and keep camouflage edges soft for paint, sharp for stealth panels. If you print the PDF, our guide on how to print a coloring book PDF explains the paper that takes many layers.

The generations are easiest to remember when you see them in order: the Me 262, the Sabre and the MiG, the X-1, the Phantom over Vietnam, the Eagle and the stealth jets. One book carries you through all of them, with the date and context under every scene.

An aviation buyer called it genuinely impressive for its accuracy and detail. If you are buying it for someone, see our gifts for military history buffs and our gifts for veterans.