Air combat manoeuvring
Air combat manoeuvring (ACM) is the tactic of moving, turning, and situating one's fighter aircraft in order to attain a position from which an attack can be made on another aircraft. Commonly associated with dogfighting, air combat manoeuvres rely on offensive and defensive basic fighter manoeuvring (BFM) to gain an advantage over an aerial opponent.
Historical overview
Military aviation originated in World War I when aircraft were initially used to spot enemy troop concentrations, field gun positions, and movements. Early aerial combat consisted of aviators shooting at one another with hand-held weapons.[1] The first recorded aircraft to be shot down by another aircraft, which occurred on October 5, 1914, was a German Aviatik B.I. The pilot, Feldwebel Wilhelm Schlichting, was shot with a carbine wielded by observer Louis Quenault, who was riding in a French Voisin III piloted by Sergeant Joseph Frantz.[2] The need to stop reconnaissance that was being conducted by enemy aircraft rapidly led to the development of fighter planes, a class of aircraft designed specifically to destroy other aircraft.[1]
Fixed, forward-firing guns were found to be the most effective armament for a majority of World War I era fighter planes, but it was nearly impossible to fire them through the spinning propeller of one's own aircraft without destroying one's own plane.
Pilots soon learned to achieve a firing position (while avoiding the threat of enemy guns) by manoeuvring themselves behind an enemy aircraft; this is known as getting onto an aircraft's "six o'clock" or onto their "tail", plus a wide variety of other terms, usually coined by air crew. This type of combat became known as
Today's air combat is much more complicated than that of older times, as
Close-range combat tactics vary considerably according to the type of aircraft being used and the number of aircraft involved.
Tactics
There are five things a pilot must remain aware of when contemplating aerial engagement; of these, seeing and keeping sight of one's opponent are the most important. In Southeast Asia, over 85 percent of all kills are attributed to the attacker spotting and shooting the defender without ever being seen.
A pilot in combat attempts to conserve his aircraft's energy through carefully timed and executed manoeuvres. By using such manoeuvres, a pilot will often make trade offs between the fighter's potential energy (altitude) and kinetic energy (airspeed), to maintain the energy-to-weight ratio of the aircraft, or the "specific energy".[7] A manoeuvre such as the "low yo-yo" trades altitude for airspeed to close on an enemy and to decrease turn radius. The opposite manoeuvre, a "high yo-yo", trades speed for height, literally storing energy in "the altitude bank",[9] which allows a fast moving attacker to slow his closing speed.[7][10]
An attacker is confronted with three possible ways to pursue an enemy, all of which are vital during chase. "Lag pursuit" happens in a turn when the nose of the attacker's aircraft points behind an enemy's tail. Lag pursuit allows an attacker to increase or maintain range without
The turning battle of a dogfight can be executed in an infinite number of geometric planes. Pilots are encouraged to keep their manoeuvres out of the strictly vertical and horizontal planes, but to instead use the limitless number of oblique planes, which is much harder for an adversary to track. This infinite number of planes around a fixed point about which the aircraft turns is termed the "post and bubble". A fighter that can maintain position between an aircraft and its imaginary post cannot be attacked by that aircraft.[7] The imaginary bubble, however, is misshapen by gravity, causing turns to be much tighter and slower at the top, and wider and faster at the bottom, and is sometimes referred to as a "tactical egg".[7]
The manoeuvres employed by the attacker can also be used by the defender to evade, or gain a tactical advantage over his opponent. Other components may also be employed to manoeuvre the aircraft, such as
Example manoeuvring
- Basic:
- Combat spread
- Pitchback
- Bell Tailslide
- Split S
- Immelmann turn
- Thach Weave
- Scissors
- Chandelle
- Complex:
- High Yo-Yo
- Low Yo-Yo
- Lag Displacement Roll (High-G Barrel Roll)
- Cobra Maneuver
- Cobra Turn
- Kulbit
- Herbst manoeuvre
- Hineri-komi
See also
References
- ^ PBS.
- ^ a b Ltd, Not Panicking (27 January 2003). "h2g2 - Early Air-to-Air Combat - Edited Entry". h2g2.com. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
- ^ The Red Fighter Pilot. Richthofen.com. Retrieved on 2010-11-16.
- ^ "Dicta Boelcke – Organization of Jagdstaffeln and the demise of Boelcke". Archived from the original on 23 October 2009.
- ^ [1] Archived March 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Joe Pappalardo, 23 June 2014, "The Texas Air Base Where NATO Fighter Pilots Are Forged", Popular Mechanics Retrieved 24 August 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Basic Principles of BFM Archived 2011-08-05 at the Wayback Machine".
- ^ Air Force Glossary Archived 2010-01-07 at the Wayback Machine. Gruntsmilitary.com. Retrieved on 2010-11-16.
- ^ Sick's ACM School: Maneuvers Explained Archived 2009-08-31 at the Wayback Machine. 352ndfightergroup.com. Retrieved on 2010-11-16.
- ^ Advanced Combat Manoeuvres – Battleground Europe Wiki Archived 14 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Wiki.battlegroundeurope.com (2008-08-15). Retrieved on 2010-11-16.