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A dogfight or dog fight is a common term used to describe close-range aerial combat between military aircraft. The term originated during World War I, and probably derives from the preferred fighter tactic of positioning one's aircraft behind the enemy aircraft. From this position, a pilot could fire his guns on the enemy without having to lead the target, and the enemy aircraft could not effectively fire back. The term came into existence because when two fighter aircraft circle each other trying to achieve this position, it resembles two dogs chasing each other's tails. Modern terminology for aerial combat between aircraft is air-to-air combat and air combat manuevering, or ACM.
World War I Dogfighting emerged in World War I. Aircraft were initially used as mobile observation vehicles and early pilots gave little thought to aerial combat—enemy pilots at first simply exchanged waves. Intrepid pilots decided to interfere with enemy reconnaissance by improvised means, including throwing bricks, grenades and sometimes rope, which they hoped would entangle the enemy plane's propeller. This progressed to pilots firing handheld guns at enemy planes. Once the guns were mountable to the plane due to the invention of synchronization gear in 1915, the era of air combat began. During the first part of the war there was no established tactical doctrine for air-to-air combat. Oswald Boelcke was the first to analyze the tactics of aerial warfare, resulting in a set of rules known as the Dicta Boelcke. Many of Boelcke's concepts, conceived in 1916, are still applicable today, including use of sun and altitude, surprise attack, and turning to meet a threat. World War II During the first part of World War II, the basic ideas behind dogfighting changed little. However, the airplanes were improved drastically over their World War I counterparts. Aircraft like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Mitsubishi Zero surprised the allies with their superior maneuverability and speed. The Allied Forces would develop superior fighters, like the Supermarine Spitfire and F4U Corsair, later in the war. The Battle of Britain was largely determined by dogfighting between British and German fighters. The American Volunteer Group, or Flying Tigers, led by Claire Chennault were among the first Allies to successfully counter Japanese fighters. Chennault interviewed Chinese pilots carefully and learned all he could about Japanese tactics and methods. He advised pilots to work in teams rather than alone. The P-40 Warhawk had pilot armor, self-sealing fuel tanks, sturdy construction, powerful machine guns, and a faster diving speed. It could defeat Zeros by remaining out of range and fighting on the dive and climb. By using speed and resisting the deadly error of trying to out-turn the Zero, eventually cannon could be brought to bear and a single burst of fire was usually enough. In a time when most of the news was of defeats, the AVG was officially credited with 297 enemy aircraft destroyed, with author Daniel Ford discounting the total to 115. Another important maneuver was called the "Thach Weave", named after the man that invented it, then-LtCdr John S. "Jimmy" Thach. It required two planes, a leader and his wingman, to fly about 200 feet apart. When a Zero would latch onto the tail of one of the fighters, the two planes would turn toward each other. If the Zero followed its original target through the turn, it would come into a position to be fired on by the target's wingman. This tactic was used at the Battle of Midway in 1942, and helped make up for the inferiority of the US planes until new aircraft types were brought into service. The main quality of perhaps the most important fighter of the war, the P-51 Mustang, was not that it was fast or maneuverable (though it certainly possessed these qualities in spades), but that after it was fitted the Merlin engine it had the range to escort B-17 bombers all the way into Germany and back, thus achieving air superiority over the enemy homeland. Modern air combat
Fictional depictions in space Although combat in space involves different considerations due to the lack of drag and gravity, science fiction films and space simulations often invoke analogies to aeronautical dogfighting to better relate to the audience's experience. Some films and games, such as Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, and I-War have tried to accurately model Newtonian physics and tactics in such an environment. For example, since a body will remain in motion without additional thrust, a fighter could orient itself to face directions other than its direction of travel, i.e. if being chased, a space fighter can make an 180 degree spin on its axis to shoot its forward guns at its pursuer, while still moving in its original direction. See also Footnotes | ||||||||||
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