Fighter Combat

BASIC FIGHTER MANEUVERS 81plane of the intended turn, before the pass. Generally, this may be achievedby making a small turn away from the bogey before meeting it in forwardquarterapproach situations. This separation has considerable impact onthe success potential of an early turn, as shown, and it also may reduce oreliminate the blind period occurring at the pass. A very close pass canresult in a considerable blind period for the attacker if the bogey crosses theattacker's tail and flies toward his belly-side during the nose-to-tail maneuver.Passing slightly above or below the opponent is not as effective inreducing this blind period as it is with nose-to-nose turns.Nose-to-tail turns, in general, result in greater separation between opponentsduring the maneuver, increasing the possibility of losing sight of anopponent in a smaller aircraft, and offering the opponent a better opportunityto escape if he desires. The greater resulting separation may, however,facilitate satisfying weapons minimum-range constraints.So far this discussion has been limited to nose-to-nose and nose-to-tailturns in the near-horizontal plane. Obviously these maneuvers may occurin any plane, and the near-vertical case is interesting, particularly fornose-to-nose situations. Figure 2-15 illustrates this case. Here the fightersmeet essentially head-on and both immediately pull straight up vertically,creating a nose-to-nose condition. Both fighters have similar turn rates,but one has a considerably smaller radius because of less airspeed. Fromthe previous discussion it would be expected that the tighter-turningfighter would gain an advantage from this maneuver, and indeed it does attime "3," where it has generated some flight-path separation.If the tighter-turning fighter is equipped with a weapon that can be firedeffectively from position "3," this may be the end of the story. Thisgenerally is not a good gun snapshot opportunity, however, unless the highfighter is very slow and separation is minimal. Likewise, the rather closerange and high aspect involved would cause minimum-range problems formost missiles.If he is unable to fire, the attacker must reverse for a lead turn toFigure 2-15. Nose-to-Nose in the Vertical Plane