The original New York Jets logo is a fighter aircraft

I often hear it's a passenger Jet. It's not. The old 1963 Jets logo is a fighter. I can understand the confusion, as the 1963 logo looks a lot like passenger Jets of today. But when you look at fighter jets of old you can see the difference.

First, let's take a look at a quick quote from the Jets:

https://www.newyorkjets.com/news/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-2411290

Werblin, the club's new president and CEO, renamed the team the Jets. The reasons were twofold. At the time, the United States was entering the "Space Age" or "Jet Age."

What is the Jet Age? Glad you asked!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_Age

The term "Jet Age" was coined in the late 1940s.[1] At the time, the only jet-powered aircraft in production were military types, most of which were fighters. The expression reflects the recognition that the jet engine had effected, or would soon, a profound change in aeronautics and aviation.

So let's take a look at the logo itself and for why it's a fighter and not a passenger plane or cargo plane.

Major features of the 1963 Jets logo:

• Bubble Canopy. The bubble canopy is a defining fighter feature of the time. Fighter canopies tend to slope upwards then downwards. Fighter canopies, being fairly small aircraft, tend to extend to the wing. So you’ll get sloping from the start of the fuselage all the way to the wings. Commercial airliners, being significantly larger, will slope upwards rapidly, then level off for a long distance before the wings, then continue being level past the wings.
• Sloping fuselage: Passenger airliners are almost rectangular in shape, but with curved edges. Like a cigar. Fighters slope inwards and get narrower once past the canopy.
• Engines: Lacks wing engines, a feature of passenger jets. Instead it appears more like side inlets for a twin engine fighter, or possibly a nose inlet for a single engine fighter.

Now that you've seen those, here are some of the existing jets of the time. Look at them and decide which you think look more like the Jets logo.

Old passenger jets:

• Comet: Link Notice the cigar shaped fuselage. It remains flat until the very end. Also notice there is no bubble canopy.
• DC-8: Link Body is way too long for the cockpit. Also has engines the jets logo doesn’t show.
• Boeing 720: Link Same as above.
• Dash 80: Link Same as above.
• Convair 990: Link

Old jet fighters:

• F-84 Thunderstreak: Link This one is the most striking. Slide the cockpit up slightly and round off the nose and you have a perfect copy.
• F-11 Tiger Link
• F-3 Demon: Link
• F-86 Sabre: Link

I'd bet if I found the F-84 at just the right angle, the Jets 1963 logo would overlay on it near perfectly. I'll buy reddit gold (or make a small donation to a charity of their choice) if anyone can find a fit at almost the exact angle of the Jets logo. It's gotta be out there somewhere.

And not really proof of any kind, but the owner of the NHL Winnipeg Jets seemed to think in 1979 that it referenced fighter Jets.

So either the fact it looks like a fighter and not a passenger is coincidence. And the NHL owner got it wrong. And the Jets CEO misspoke when he said it was a reference to the Jet age.... Or it's a fighter. One of those two.