Wanna Learn To Be A Fighter Pilot?
Do you remember in the movie "Top Gun," when Charlie is going over the ACMI logs in the briefing room with all the pilots? She rips on Maverick's split S maneuver, and says, "The encounter was a victory, but I think we've shown it as an example of what not to do." Then she moves on to another pilot (presumably Iceman), and remarks, "Now this is a perfect example of a textbook maneuver."

I always wondered, "What textbook? Do these fighter pilots have a textbook that they use to learn how to kill the other pilot most effectively?" I imagined college textbooks for chemistry, calculus, and dogfighting. As a long-time fan of flight sims, aviation, and of course air combat games, I really wanted to know.

As it turns out, they do have a textbook. It is called "Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering," by Robert L. Shaw. And it was pretty much used as the textbook in the U.S. Navy, and probably most other armed forces with an air combat mission in the world. I don't know if it still is or not - it was originally published in 1985, and while some of the information may be somewhat dated, the book covers all aspects of fighter combat, and is equally useful for modern jet aircraft as World War I era biplanes. Most of it hasn't gone out of date. Not until we develop anti-gravity aircraft that don't rely on lift and thrust, or weapons that can fire from any angle of the plane with equal chances to hit.

I had to special-order a copy many years ago. But now I've learned that you can get it as a FREE DOWNLOAD E-Book.

If you are into combat flight sims, grab a free copy of it HERE.

It uses the .RAR format to compress the PDF file. If you don't already have a program to decompress .rar files, I recommend the free utility 7-Zip, available HERE. It's also a bit more powerful at creating .ZIP files than the compression that comes with stock Windows. :)

Reading it won't make you an expert fighter pilot. But as a guy who got pretty competitive in online dogfights, I can say that it really helped me take my skills to the next level and kick some online tail in games like Falcon 4.0. Unfortunately for me, most of the top-ranked pilots had read the book also.

But the book contains a lot of information that becomes more valuable as the flight sim becomes more realistic. In it, you'll find the different means of defeating Doppler versus Continuous Wave radar systems, when and how best to begin your turn in a one-on-one engagement, turn performance effects on nose-to-nose turns, and the basic fighter maneuvers and how best to use them such as the high and low yo-yo, flat and rolling scissors, etc.

If you aren't a flight sim fan, then none of what I just said made any sense at all. But if you are (and we seem to be decreasing in number these days), check it out!

(Vaguely) related mumble transcripts:
* Game Moments #2: Falcon 4.0
* Game Moment #11: Falcon 4.0 (again)
* Guest Game Moment #1: Falcon 4.0
* Why Presentation Is Important
* Do Games Matter?

.

Labels: Flight Sims, Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:32 PM (Permalink)