COMBAT AIR MANEUVERS HOW TO
COMBAT AIR MANEUVERS PLUS

With a ratio of more than 1:1, the fighter can accelerate and/or maintain altitude in a 90-degree angle of bank.Īs an airplane banks, it loses lift. This means that in a 90-degree angle of bank, the plane will slow and/or descend. Until the advent of the afterburner, most fighters had a thrust or power-to-weight ratio of less than one. Put another way, combat weight is pilot, airframe, ammunition, and roughly 60 per cent of its fuel. You hear the term “combat weight,” which measures an airplane’s heaviness after it has burned some of its fuel. Or in a jet, pounds of thrust per pound of airplane. Normally, it is measured in pounds of airplane being pulled through the air by each horsepower. This is simply the amount of power or thrust the plane has versus its weight at the time of the dogfight.

(Image source: WikiMedia Commons) Thrust-to-weight ratio There are additional variables that can be decisive in air combat beyond the commonly cited factors: speed and rate-of-climb. With this in mind, let’s explore the specific factors that are relative in a fight with airplanes only armed with machine guns and cannon. shooting at an enemy aircraft from an angle, from any position - be it diving, climbing, level flight, or some combination of these - was a key component of the training given to U.S.

COMBAT AIR MANEUVERS HOW TO

Aerobatics taught the basics but engaging with other airplanes in mock dogfights in which the movements are not scripted taught pilots how to fly in a three-dimensional environment. Navy taught aerobatics as “confidence maneuvers.” Why? The Navy wanted fliers to be able to instinctively point the nose of the airplane where they wanted it to go from any attitude. Interestingly, in the 1930s and during the ramp-up to World War II, the U.S. Rule number five in Dicta Boelcke, a set of rules laid down by First World War flying ace Oswald Boelcke, says that “ In any form of attack it is essential to assail your enemy from behind.” In other words, sneak up behind your opponent and blow him out of the sky before he has a chance to react. Pilots who control the merge generally get off the first shots before the enemy has time to react. Training and confidence can do wonders even if the pilot is flying an airplane that is roughly equal or even inferior to the enemy’s fighter. Once the fight begins, the outcome is determined by a pilot’s experience in the air, his tactics and the airplane itself. Secondly, the Japanese pilots didn’t have radios so coordinating a defense was limited to what each pilot in a Japanese formation saw with his own eyes. As such, Marines could dive, shoot, dive away, then climb and re-engage. These look outs (and the information they provided) enabled the Wildcats to climb and position themselves to control the merge. The first was radar keyed by coastwatchers in the Solomon Islands. Similarly, in the skies around Guadalcanal, Marine aviators flying the F4F Wildcat had two major advantages over the Imperial Japanese Navy A6M Zeros. During the Battle of Britain, for the most part, radar direction enabled Royal Air Force squadrons to determine when and where they would engage the German formations. How the fight begins has become known as “the merge.” Control the merge and the chances of shooting down the other airplane go up exponentially. This was certainly the case in World War Two.įrom there, the pilot could maneuver to gain tactical advantage, preferably by climbing and turning to get above and behind or below and behind his enemy. Prior to the advent of air-to-air radar and missiles, victory in air combat was dependent on spotting the enemy before he spotted you. What has changed are sensors, weapons, thrust-to-weight ratios, aircraft speed and maneuvering capability. Dogfight tactics really haven’t changed since World War II. Yet to make a judgement of two airplanes using basic performance numbers doesn’t do either airplane justice because the evaluation fails to take into account the physics and aerodynamics of aerial combat. which plane has a better rate of climb or flies faster. MOST comparisons of aircraft focus on a numerical evaluation, i.e. (Image source: National Archives) “Once the fight begins, the outcome is determined by a pilot’s experience in the air, his tactics and the airplane itself.”

COMBAT AIR MANEUVERS PLUS

In the century plus since airplanes first took to the skies to do combat, the term “dissimilar aircraft maneuvering” or DACM, “hassling,” “furball” and “three-dimensional knife fight” have all be used to define a battle between two or more flying machines.

The term “dogfight” was first used in World War I. A Navy Hellcat toting a drop tank shoots down a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

Combat air maneuvers