Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

148 ONE-VERSUS-ONE MANEUVERING, DISSIMILAR AIRCRAFT
Whenever he is engaging in a zooming contest, the angles fighter pilot
must take care not to allow his speed to bleed below that required for
control in level flight (i.e., power-on stall speed). Once the nose is parked
near vertical, it is all too easy to let the airspeed fall below this value, even
to zero, in an attempt to get a few more feet of altitude out of the zoom. If
this is allowed to happen, the nose of the airplane will soon become an
"earth seeker," falling to a near-vertical nose-down attitude. Even if the
pilot can maintain control during this maneuver, he will have very little G
available with which to fend off an attack by the higher bogey, which now
has been placed astutely in the rear quarter.
If it becomes apparent during a zoom that the bogey will top out much
higher, the angles fighter pilot should immediately pull the nose back
down to near a level attitude in a direction as far from the bogey as possible
while he maintains sight of his opponent. This tactic generates separation
and provides time for the angles fighter to build up some speed for defensive
maneuvering.
The tactic illustrated in Figure 4-4 is more conservative and probably
more appropriate early in the engagement than zooming with the bogey on
the first pass. Here, on observing the bogey's zoom, the angles fighter pilot
simply levels his wings and climbs. An unloaded acceleration might also
be appropriate during this segment if his speed is substantially below that
required for best climb performance. The climb allows the low-wingloaded
fighter to build energy at near maximum rate, while the high-T/W
bogey remains at high G in its vertical pull-up, gaining little or no energy in
the process. Simultaneously, the angles fighter is creating horizontal
separation and reducing the bogey's altitude advantage.
The angles fighter should continue in a straight line until the bogey
approaches the top of its loop. Any horizontal turning during this period
merely wastes valuable energy, since the bogey can nullify any such turn
simply by rolling while in a near-vertical attitude.
As the bogey approaches the top of the loop (time "3"), the pilot of the
angles fighter rolls to place the bogey perpendicular to the wings (i.e.,
points the lift vector at it), and bends his aircraft around to generate about a
90° AOT (time "4"}. At that time he can relax the G but continue to turn
obliquely up toward the bogey just hard enough to hold it about 90° off the
tail.
This tactic has several positive benefits for the angles fighter. The
co-planar turn holding the bogey at 90° AOT presents the bogey with the
highest possible horizontal LOS rate, forcing it to turn mainly in the
horizontal to gain a position advantage. The bogey's shallow oblique turn
at slow airspeed prevents it from gaining any great amount of energy. The
angles fighter meanwhile is turning at fairly low G near optimum maneuvering
speed and usually can maintain or even add energy during this
segment. In addition, by allowing the bogey to remain very near the
angular limits of a gun envelope, the angles fighter pilot is encouraging the
opponent to continue his maneuver with hopes of success.
This "baiting" tactic is continued until the bogey approaches firing
parameters of range and lead. At that point (time "5 ") the pilot of the angles