The 15 Best Fighter Pilots of All Time, Ranked by Their Combat Records

The best fighter pilot of all time is Erich Hartmann, the German ace credited with 352 aerial victories in World War II. No pilot in history comes close to that number, and none ever will: air combat on that scale no longer exists.

A raw kill count is a poor ranking on its own, though. More than 100 German pilots passed 100 victories, while the top American ace scored 40. So this list ranks each pilot against their own war: every name here led, or nearly led, the scoreboard of their era or their air force.

Within that, the order weighs three things: the size of the record, how well it has held up to historians, and the odds the pilot faced. Records are as of September 2026.

Rank	Pilot	Country	War	Aerial victories
1	Erich Hartmann	Germany	World War II	352 (credited)
2	Manfred von Richthofen	Germany	World War I	80
3	Ilmari Juutilainen	Finland	World War II	94 1/6
4	Ivan Kozhedub	Soviet Union	World War II	64 (62 official)
5	René Fonck	France	World War I	75
6	Hans-Joachim Marseille	Germany	World War II	158 (claimed)
7	Richard Bong	USA	World War II	40
8	Giora Epstein	Israel	1967 to 1973	17
9	David McCampbell	USA	World War II	34
10	Joseph McConnell	USA	Korea	16
11	Robin Olds	USA	World War II, Vietnam	16
12	Josef František	Czechoslovakia	World War II	17
13	Eddie Rickenbacker	USA	World War I	26
14	Nguyen Van Coc	North Vietnam	Vietnam	9
15	Jalil Zandi	Iran	Iran-Iraq War	11 (credited)

1. Erich Hartmann (Germany)

Erich “Bubi” Hartmann is credited with 352 aerial victories, the highest score of any fighter pilot in history. All of them came in the Messerschmitt Bf 109: 345 against Soviet aircraft and 7 against Americans.

His first victory came on November 5, 1942, and his last on May 8, 1945, the day the war in Europe ended. In between he flew about 1,404 combat missions and fought in the air on 825 of them.

He was forced to crash-land 16 times, mostly by mechanical failure or debris from aircraft he had just hit. In his final interview he said he lost only one wingman, Günther Capito, who survived.

After surrendering to US forces, Hartmann was handed to the Soviets and held for about 10 and a half years, until 1955. He then joined the new West German air force and commanded JG 71 “Richthofen”, its first all-jet unit.

He ranks first because nobody else comes near the number. Some historians argue that the aircraft actually destroyed may be fewer than the 352 he claimed, which is why “credited” is the honest word.

2. Manfred von Richthofen (Germany)

The Red Baron scored 80 victories between September 17, 1916, and April 20, 1918, the highest total of World War I. He did it in open cockpits, with no radio, in World War I aircraft built of wood and fabric.

His red Albatros D.III gave him his nickname. Most of his victories came in Albatros fighters, and fewer than 20 in the Fokker Dr.I triplane most people picture him in.

He took command of Jasta 11 in January 1917 and of Jagdgeschwader 1, the “Flying Circus”, in June 1917. He was killed on April 21, 1918, the day after his 80th victory.

The RAF officially credited pilot Roy Brown. Historians now generally agree that the fatal bullet came from an Australian machine gunner on the ground, most likely Sergeant Cedric Popkin.

3. Ilmari Juutilainen (Finland)

Ilmari Juutilainen is the top-scoring non-German fighter pilot of all time, with 94 1/6 confirmed victories in 437 sorties. He flew for Finland against the Soviet Union.

About a third of his victories came in the American-built Brewster Buffalo, and most of the rest in the Bf 109G.

The detail that puts him this high: in all those combats, no enemy fighter ever put a bullet into his aircraft. The only fighter hit he took came from friendly fire.

He received Finland’s Mannerheim Cross twice. He is one of only four people across all the Finnish services to do so.

4. Ivan Kozhedub (Soviet Union)

Ivan Kozhedub is the highest-scoring Soviet and Allied fighter pilot of World War II. His official Soviet total is 62, but archive research found two missing victories, and most historians now use 64.

He flew about 330 combat sorties and fought 120 air battles, first in the La-5 and then the La-7. He was never shot down.

In February 1945 he became the first Soviet pilot to shoot down a German Me 262 jet. He also claimed two American P-51 Mustangs in April 1945 after their escorts attacked him, a claim that US records do not confirm.

He was made a Hero of the Soviet Union three times.

5. René Fonck (France)

René Fonck was the highest-scoring Allied pilot of World War I, with 75 confirmed victories out of 142 claims. He believed his real total was 127.

Twice he shot down six aircraft in a single day, on May 9 and September 26, 1918. On the first of those days, three went down within five minutes.

Flying SPAD fighters with squadron SPA 103, Fonck was never wounded. Only a single enemy bullet ever hit his aircraft.

6. Hans-Joachim Marseille (Germany)

Hans-Joachim Marseille claimed 158 victories, every one against the Western Allies. No other pilot claimed as many British, Commonwealth and American aircraft.

All but seven came over North Africa, which earned him the nickname “Star of Africa”. On September 1, 1942, he claimed 17 aircraft in three sorties, eight of them in about 10 minutes.

Post-war analysis suggests eight or nine of those 17 were actually destroyed, with more damaged. Marseille was not untouchable either: Free French pilot James Denis shot him down twice in May 1941.

He died on September 30, 1942, aged 22, when smoke filled the cockpit of his new Bf 109 and he struck the tail as he bailed out.

7. Richard Bong (USA)

Richard Bong is America’s highest-scoring ace, with 40 Japanese aircraft shot down over the Southwest Pacific. Every one came in the twin-boomed Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

General Douglas MacArthur presented his Medal of Honor on December 12, 1944.

He died on August 6, 1945, testing a P-80 Shooting Star jet. The fuel pump failed just after takeoff from Burbank, and he bailed out too low for his parachute to open.

8. Giora Epstein (Israel)

Giora Epstein is the top-scoring ace of the supersonic jet era, with 17 victories: 16 Egyptian jets and one helicopter. Eight came in the Mirage III and nine in its Israeli-built copy, the Nesher.

Twelve of them came in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In one sortie he shot down four aircraft alone against a much larger Egyptian formation, then flew home short of fuel.

The Israeli Air Force first rejected him on medical grounds, citing a heart condition. He kept flying fighters until he retired in 1997, aged 59, and died in July 2025.

9. David McCampbell (USA)

David McCampbell is the US Navy’s all-time top ace, with 34 victories in the Grumman F6F Hellcat. He was also the highest-scoring American fighter pilot to survive the war.

On October 24, 1944, at the opening of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, he shot down nine aircraft in a single mission. That is still the US record.

He commanded Air Group 15, the “Fabled Fifteen”, aboard USS Essex. It destroyed 315 aircraft in the air and 348 on the ground, more than any other air group in the Pacific.

10. Joseph McConnell (USA)

Joseph McConnell was the top American ace of the Korean War, with 16 MiG-15s shot down in the North American F-86 Sabre. The Sabre and the MiG-15 were the defining matchup among the fighters of the Korean War.

On April 12, 1953, a MiG shot him down over the Yellow Sea. A helicopter pulled him out after two minutes in the freezing water, and he was back in combat soon after.

On May 18, 1953, his last combat day, he shot down three MiGs in two missions and became a triple ace. He died on August 25, 1954, testing an F-86H at Edwards Air Force Base.

11. Robin Olds (USA)

Robin Olds scored 12 aerial victories in World War II and four MiGs over Vietnam, 16 in all. That makes him a triple ace, a title that means 15 or more victories in total, not in one day.

His masterpiece was Operation Bolo on January 2, 1967. Olds led his wing into a fight with North Vietnamese MiG-21s, and his crews shot down seven, one of them his own, with no losses.

Under his command the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing became the top MiG-killing wing in Southeast Asia. He was also married to the Hollywood actress Ella Raines.

12. Josef František (Czechoslovakia)

Josef František was the highest-scoring non-British pilot of the Battle of Britain. The Battle of Britain Memorial goes further and calls him the highest-scoring Fighter Command pilot of the battle.

A Czech who fled the Nazi occupation, he flew Hurricanes with No. 303 (Polish) Squadron. He scored 17 confirmed victories between September 2 and September 30, 1940, in just four weeks.

He was killed on October 8, 1940, when his Hurricane crashed in Surrey on a routine patrol.

13. Eddie Rickenbacker (USA)

Eddie Rickenbacker was America’s top ace of World War I, with 26 victories: 20 aircraft and 6 observation balloons. He scored all of them between April and October 1918.

A race car driver with four Indianapolis 500 starts, he went to France in the US Army Air Service. There was no US Air Force yet. He rose to command the 94th Aero Squadron, the “Hat-in-the-Ring” squadron.

On September 25, 1918, he attacked seven German aircraft alone and shot one down. That fight earned him the Medal of Honor, presented in 1930.

14. Nguyen Van Coc (North Vietnam)

Nguyen Van Coc is the top-scoring fighter pilot of the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese air force credits him with nine American aircraft, and US records confirm seven of them.

He flew the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 between 1967 and 1969, armed with heat-seeking missiles. Even on the US count, he outscored every American ace of the war: the top one, Chuck DeBellevue, had six.

His record stands out because Hanoi’s claims were so often inflated. It announced at least 20 aces, but by HistoryNet’s analysis only three hold up against US loss records.

15. Jalil Zandi (Iran)

Jalil Zandi is the most successful Grumman F-14 Tomcat pilot in the world. He flew for Iran in its 1980 to 1988 war with Iraq.

Zandi is credited with 11 Iraqi aircraft: four MiG-23s, two Su-22s, two MiG-21s and three Mirage F1s. Eight are confirmed through US intelligence documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, and three are probable.

Iran’s own records have never been opened to outside historians, which is why he ranks last here. He died in a car accident near Tehran in 2001.

Famous fighter pilots who just miss the list

Some of the best-known names in fighter aviation are famous for something other than their score. These are the ones readers ask about most, and why they sit outside the top 15. For the fame ranking itself, see our list of the most famous pilots in history.

Chuck Yeager

Yeager finished World War II with 11.5 victories, including five in one day on October 12, 1944. His fame comes from October 14, 1947, when he flew the Bell X-1 faster than sound in level flight. He flew again on the 65th anniversary in 2012, aged 89, riding in an F-15.

Gregory “Pappy” Boyington

Boyington commanded the Marine “Black Sheep” squadron, VMF-214, in the Solomons. His Medal of Honor citation credits him with 26 victories, and the Marine Corps count reached 28 once claims from his Flying Tigers days were added.

Douglas Bader

Bader lost both legs in a 1931 crash and still became an RAF ace, credited with 22 victories. He bailed out over France on August 9, 1941, and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner.

Max Immelmann

Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke were the first aviators awarded the Pour le Mérite, in January 1916. He is credited with 15 victories and was killed on June 18, 1916. His link to the “Immelmann turn” is doubtful.

Indra Lal Roy

Roy was India’s only World War I ace. He scored 10 victories in 13 days in July 1918 and was killed on July 22. He was the first Indian awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, posthumously.

Lydia Litvyak

Litvyak was the first of the world’s two female fighter aces, both Soviet. Historians credit her with 12 to 14 solo victories before she was killed on August 1, 1943, aged 21.

Saburo Sakai

Sakai is Japan’s best-known ace, often quoted at 64 victories. That figure comes from his English-language memoir; official Japanese records credit him with 28, including shared victories.

Which country has the best fighter pilots?

There is no objective ranking of pilots, and it depends which record you trust. By all-time score, Germany wins outright, but for the structural reasons above rather than pilot skill alone. Whole fleets are easier to compare, as our ranking of the best air forces in the world shows.

By modern combat record, Israel has the strongest case. On June 9, 1982, over Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, the Israeli Air Force shot down between 82 and 86 Syrian aircraft without losing a single jet in air combat.

By training, the answer shifts to Western air forces. The Netherlands Court of Audit puts the need at 180 flying hours a year to keep a fighter pilot combat-ready, and RUSI’s Justin Bronk estimated in 2022 that RAF frontline pilots fly 20 to 50 percent more than the average Russian pilot.

Even the US is not guaranteed a lead. According to John Venable of the Mitchell Institute, USAF fighter pilots averaged about 5.5 sorties a month in fiscal 2023, against the 9 to 10 he says combat readiness needs. If you are weighing which service to fly for, our guide to the best military branch for pilots compares the options.

Who is the best fighter pilot in the world today?

Nobody can name one with evidence, because air combat between manned fighters has become rare. The last Americans to become aces did it over Vietnam in 1972: Randy Cunningham and Willie Driscoll in May, Steve Ritchie in August, Chuck DeBellevue in September and Jeffrey Feinstein in October.

Drones have reopened the question. A Marine AV-8B Harrier pilot was reported to have downed seven Houthi drones in 2023 and 2024, but it remains unclear whether those were confirmed kills, and he holds no official ace status.

Today’s pilots are judged on training results that air forces do not publish, flying jets far more capable than anything on this list. Our ranking of the best fighter jets in the world covers the aircraft they fly now.

FAQ

Who is the best fighter pilot of all time?

Erich Hartmann of Germany is credited with 352 aerial victories in World War II, the highest score in history. Some historians believe the number he actually destroyed was lower, but no other pilot comes close. The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, holds the World War I record with 80.

Who are the top 10 best fighter pilots in the world?

Ranked against their own wars, the top 10 are Erich Hartmann, Manfred von Richthofen, Ilmari Juutilainen, Ivan Kozhedub, René Fonck, Hans-Joachim Marseille, Richard Bong, Giora Epstein, David McCampbell and Joseph McConnell. Each led, or nearly led, the scoreboard of their war or air force.

Which country has the best fighter pilots in the world?

There is no objective answer. Germany produced every World War II pilot with 100 or more victories, largely because its pilots flew until killed or captured. Israel has the strongest modern record, shooting down 82 to 86 Syrian aircraft without an air-to-air loss in 1982, while Western air forces generally give their pilots more training hours.

Who is the best fighter pilot in the world today?

No one can be named with evidence, because combat between manned fighters has become rare and air forces do not publish training results. The last Americans to become aces did so over Vietnam in 1972.

Who was the best American fighter pilot?

Richard Bong is America’s highest-scoring ace, with 40 victories in the P-38 Lightning in World War II. David McCampbell is the US Navy’s top ace with 34, and Joseph McConnell was the top American jet ace of the Korean War with 16.

How many kills make a fighter pilot an ace?

A flying ace is usually a pilot credited with five or more aerial victories. A triple ace has 15 or more in total, and an ace in a day scored five or more on a single date.

Who was the best fighter pilot of World War I?

Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, scored 80 victories, the most of the war. France’s René Fonck was the top Allied pilot with 75 confirmed victories, and Eddie Rickenbacker was the top American with 26.