Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

ONE-VERSUS-ONE MANEUVERING, DISSIMILAR AIRCRAFT 181
High versus Low T/W with Similar Wing Loading
In this scenario the high-T/W fighter should have an acceleration and
climb-rate advantage as well as better sustained turn rate and faster top
speed. Instantaneous-turn capability, however, should be similar. The
pilot of a high-T/W fighter in this case can employ either angles or energy
tactics, but angles methods are probably preferable since they are quicker,
less complex, and more offensive. The angles fighter pilot can be quite
aggressive in such a fight, since his T/W advantage offers insurance against
an opponent's possible energy tactics.
If the high-T/W fighter pilot chooses the energy fight, climbing extension/pitch-back
tactics are normally very effective, but other methods
should also be useful. The energy fighter pilot can try to grab an initial
angular advantage, then use lag pursuit and allow his sustained-turn superiority
to bleed the bogey's energy in nose-to-tail turns. Once the opponent
has neutralized the angular advantage, or gained a small one of his own, the
energy fighter pilot can begin vertical maneuvering. The initial vertical
move is generally a climbing spiral begun across the circle from the bogey.
A wings-level vertical pull-up might also be workable, provided the bogey
is equipped with guns only. Otherwise the wide lateral separation at the
moment of the pull-up may allow the bogey to pull its nose up, point, and
shoot as the energy fighter nears the top of its zoom.
Bleeding the bogey's energy by using offensive lag pursuit may take
several turns, since it is up to the low-T/W opponent in this case to decide
how fast he wishes to trade energy for angles. The bogey can prolong this
fight considerably by turning nose-low, trading altitude for turn rate while
maintaining speed. In this case the energy fighter pilot generally should
follow the bogey down, maintaining a small altitude advantage, since the
opponent can use the vertical separation for a zooming lead turn and a
snapshot if the altitude differential is allowed to build too far. Likewise,
diving on the bogey from a considerable height advantage tends to give
back any energy margin gained, and may result in a vertical overshoot and
a rolling scissors. Since the lower bogey has maintained speed and now has
energy equivalence, it may gain a temporary advantage in this maneuver.
Therefore, it is preferable simply to follow the bogey down from slightly
above until it reaches low altitude and is forced to begin trading speed for
turn rate. Once the bogey has been bled to a slow speed it will be much
easier to handle.
A beautiful example of this process is found in an engagement between
Baron Manfred von Richthofen (ten victories at the time) and the first
British ace, Major Lanoe Hawker (nine victories), on 23 November 1916.
The German was flying an Albatros D-II against the British de Havilland
DH-2. The fighters were roughly equivalent in turn performance, but the
Albatros had a significant climb and top-speed advantage. This is the way
von Richthofen described the fight in his book The Red Air Fighter. (No
dissenting version is available!)
The Englishman tried to catch me up in the rear while I tried to get behind
him. So we circled round and round like madmen after one another at an
altitude of about 10,000 feet.