Fighter Combat

144 ONE-VERSUS-ONE MANEUVERING, DISSIMILAR AIRCRAFTacceleration and max-speed performance. If the bogey pilot decides to stayand fight by pulling back up steeply vertical, however, the pilot of theangles fighter should ensure he has minimum vertical-maneuvering speedbefore following the bogey up. Such a maneuver should result either in arepeat of the sequence of Figure 3-2 or in a rolling scissors. In the latter casethe low-wing-loaded fighter normally has an advantage because of betterslow-speed controllability.Throughout the fight, the pilot of the angles fighter can be somewhatless concerned with overshoots than he would be in the case of similarfighters, since the bogey's larger turn radius and higher speed make it moredifficult for its pilot to gain advantage after an overshoot by the anglesfighter. Gross vertical overshoots still should be avoided, however, sincethey may allow the bogey at least a temporary advantage, and possibly asnapshot, after one turn of a rolling scissors. Minimum verticalmaneuveringspeed should be observed whenever the angles fighter is inclose proximity with the bogey to guard against zoom maneuvers. Greed isthe angles fighter pilot's greatest enemy. He should avoid trying to grabangles faster than his aircraft's performance permits. Once further angulargains can no longer be made at speeds greater than that required for verticalmaneuvering, the high-wing-loaded fighter must have bled its speed downto or below that of the angles fighter, so the bogey should have littlevertical potential remaining. In this case the pilot of the angles fighter cansafely bleed to slower speeds and finish off his opponent.Don't let the [enemy] trick you into pulling up or turning until you lose yourspeed.Major Thomas B. "Tommy" McGuire, USAAFIn the case of dissimilar fighters, the high-wing-loaded bogey pilot is lesslikely to allow the angles fighter the advantages of nose-to-nose geometry.By being uncooperative, the bogey pilot can make things more difficult.For instance, he may choose to reverse his turn direction after the firstpass, reinitiating a nose-to-tail condition, as shown in Figure 4-2.The reaction (reversal) of the pilot of the high-T/W bogey depicted hereis likely to occur at some time after the first pass, when he observes theangles fighter's nose-to-nose reversal. A reversal at this time requires thebogey pilot to "kick his opponent across the tail" and usually results in aprotracted blind period when the angles fighter is out of sight. Such amaneuver performed well after the pass may cause the bogey pilot to losesight of the angles fighter altogether, particularly when small, high-speedfighters are involved, so it is not without risk. The pilot of the anglesfighter can increase his chances of being lost at this point by making aradical change in his maneuver plane (i.e., zooming or diving). Figure 4-3shows one possible mid-game approach in this situation.In this top view the fighters are initially positioned at time "3" as inFigure 4-2. Because of the bogey's late reversal and the low-wing-loadedfighter's better turn performance, the angles fighter already has a significantangular advantage at this point, but it is probably well outside effectiveguns range. The task of the angles fighter pilot in this nose-to-tail