Before we had magic BB's, winning a dogfight meant maneuvering to a position from which you could shoot (Gun/Fox 2) your opponent, without being gunned back. The best position from which to do that is at his six o'clock, within weapons range. I almost went off on a tangent about lateral separation and lead turns at the merge, but decided to postpone that discussion, or we'll be here for days trying to write our way into a rolling scissors. So rewind back to what we were thinking about as we press toward his six. Two factory models on 3 ft sticks make this a lot easier than hands and wrist watches.
In a dog fight, as in life, I need to know where I am relative to the bandit. My rule is that if I'm behind his wing line, with less than 180 degrees to align my fuselage with his , I'm on the offense and winning. If the opposite is true, then I'm defensive and losing. That's an important distinction, because the two roles require doing something very different.
If I'm winning, then I need to stay out of his plane of turn until I'm ready for a shot. That's because anytime I'm in his plane of turn, it won't be long before I'll overshoot his flight path. (Don't want to overshoot because that means I'm about to be out front.) To stay on offense and get an effective shot I avoid being in the bandits plane of turn until I'm within weapons range and ready to briefly align my fuselage with his. If the defender is maneuvering relative to me, the window of opportunity for a shot opens only briefly. As the window closes, I move out of his plane of turn, with my lift vector aft of flight path, so I can maintain lateral separation and stay on offense, e.g., aft of his wing line.
If I'm defensive, the opposite is true; I need to maneuver to keep him in my plane of turn until I can force him to overshoot my flight path and move aft of his wing line. I try to keep him in my plane of turn by continuously pointing my lift vector at him. As soon as he overshoots, I point my lift vector 90 degrees away from his plane of turn and aft of his tail.
At all times throughout the maneuvering, everything I do has to be, as precisely as possible, relative to the bandit; relative to where he is and what he's doing. (Bushwacker said anything else was just a dozen eggs.)
The need for the attacker (offensive airplane) and the defender (the guy most out front) to maneuver as I described results in both airplanes constantly changing their planes of turn. If we're both doing the right thing at all times, our lift vectors are approximately perpendicular our lateral separation is decreasing. Now we're in a rolling scissors. Because our thrust is limited, we can't keep our noses above the horizon and we begin to roll around an axis perpendicular to the earth.The lateral separation between the airplanes continues to decrease until we're canopy to canopy and losing altitude, unable to roll independently of each other. Neither of us can quit with out giving the other guy a shot.
Flying dissimilar airplanes, with a significant difference in energy maneuverability, changes the game, as does a very slight difference in talent. Either can determine the outcome of the fight. The advent of all aspect missiles and continuing improvements in aerodynamic performance will continue to reduce the operational importance of dog fighting; but, it will always define the soul of the fighter pilot. It's what we're all about!
Hoser, Skoggs and Magic...you're cleared in hot!
Turk...Out! |
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发表于 2009-12-29 22:03:39
楼主
发表于 2009-12-30 02:59:44
发表于 2009-12-30 09:29:09
