Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

BASIC FIGHTER MANEUVERS 87
speed for maximum performance. Conversely, a nose-high maneuver
tends to reduce excess speed.
Since many fighters are unable to maintain corner speed at maximum G
(i.e., they are power limited under these conditions), nose-low spirals often
maximize turn performance for them. The optimum descent angle depends
on many factors, even for the same aircraft with the same power.
These factors include weight, configuration, and altitude; greater weight,
increased drag, and higher altitude usually require steeper descents.
The fighter pilot is concerned not only with optimizing absolute turn
performance, however, but also with his performance relative to that of his
opponent. Maximum performance is of little value if the aircraft is turning
in the wrong direction. For instance, if a defender wishes only to maximize
AOT for an attacker in the rear hemisphere, the defender generally should
turn toward the attacker in the plane of the attack, assuming his aircraft is
physically able to maneuver in this plane. This usually is accomplished in
high-G situations by rolling to place the opponent near the verticallongitudinal
plane (i.e., perpendicular to the wings) so that all the radial
acceleration is working in the right direction. If both fighters are using the
same technique this results in co-planar maneuvering.
Placement of the radial-acceleration vector, which for simplicity can be
called the lift vector, may be compared with placement of the velocity
vector in performing lead, pure, or lag pursuit. Since these two vectors
define the maneuver plane, the velocity vector will follow where the lift
vector pulls it. Placing the lift vector ahead of or behind the target in
out-of-plane maneuvers is essentially lead or lag pursuit, respectively, and
is used for the same reasons lead or lag pursuit are used, as demonstrated by
the lag displacement rolls and yo-yos.
It has been shown that turn radius is important in many maneuvers,
such as nose-to-nose turns. The fighter pilot is concerned primarily with
the projection of his radius in the maneuver plane of his opponent. Figure
2-19 illustrates this principle.
In this example the opposing fighters meet on opposite headings, and
one (the defender) chooses to turn horizontally while the other (the attacker)
pulls straight up vertically. At time "2" each has completed about
90° of turn in its respective plane, and neither has any great advantage. At
this point the attacker is in a near-vertical attitude and rolls to point his lift
vector ahead of his opponent's position in a lead-pursuit maneuver, predicting
the bogey's future position across the circle. As the attacker peaks
out at the top of his "pitch-back" maneuver, his nose is oriented toward a
point almost directly above the defender at time "3." Looking at the top
view of this maneuver (i.e., looking straight down from above) reveals that
the change of vertical maneuver planes in the nose-high pitch-back has
essentially had the effect of reducing the attacker's turn radius in the
horizontal plane, which is the plane of the opponent's maneuver. As with
other nose-to-nose maneuvers, this smaller radius has given the attacker
flight-path separation, this time both vertically and horizontally. He also
has an angular advantage, largely because of his tighter horizontal turn
radius and the nose-to-nose geometry.