Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

78 BASIC FIGHTER MANEUVERS
Figure 2-11. Turn Options
the other turns right, away from its adversary, so that the two fighters
again approach in a nose-to-nose fashion. In the second, each pilot chooses
to cross the other's tail, resulting in a nose-to-tail relationship.
In choosing the nose-to-nose turn, one pilot turns away from his opponent
at the pass. In nearly parallel approach situations with considerable
flight-path separation, such as that shown in Figure 2-11, this choice may
result in a short blind period when the adversary is out of sight behind and
beneath the attacker's aircraft. Such a situation could lead to loss of sight if
the bogey does something unexpected during this time, but with a fairly
close pass this is unlikely. The nose-to-nose option also tends to keep the
opponents relatively close together throughout the maneuver, so that
maintaining sight is easier. This is to the advantage of the pilot of a larger,
easier-to-see fighter, since reduced separation makes it less likely that he
will lose sight of an opponent in a smaller aircraft.
The pilot choosing to turn nose-to-nose is giving up any flight-path
separation in the plane of his intended maneuver. For this reason, as well as
to decrease the blind period in the initial phase of the turn, the attacker
should attempt to minimize in-plane flight-path separation at the pass, but
some out-of-plane separation may be beneficial. For instance, if he is
planning a level nose-to-nose turn, the attacker may make a fairly close
pass directly beneath or above the bogey. This tactic eliminates all horizontal
flight-path separation (useful to the opponent) and also reduces the
blind period.
Figure 2-12 shows the effects of turn-performance variation on nose-tonose
turns. In case 1 the two fighters have the same turn rates, but the
attacker has a tighter radius and slower speed. This smaller radius allows
the attacker to stay inside the defender's turn, generating flight-path
separation that the defender is unable to take away by pointing his aircraft
at the attacker. The attacker then uses this separation by reversing at point
"3" (lead turn) to arrive at point "4" with good position advantage. Case 2
depicts the same situation, except in this case the fighter with the larger
radius also has a much faster turn rate. This turn-rate advantage, however,
does the defender very little good. The attacker generates nearly the same
flight-path separation, which results in almost the same angular advantage
after the lead turn. In practice, relative turn radius largely determines