Book Title: Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering
Author: Robert L. Shaw
ISBN: 978-0-87021-059-4
Category: Reference
Format: Hardback
Summary: Shaw's 1985 book on fighter combat is frequently viewed as the foundational study of air-to-air tactics. He starts with an introduction that focuses on the increase in firepower over the years. (Which -- when measuring by pounds of ammunition per minute and muzzle velocity -- rises from a factor of 2 at the end of WWI to 38 in a P-51D to 145 in a single M-61 gatling gun.) And while he fully acknowledges and quotes from many of the great WWI pilots, the focus of the book is really on the high-power combat of late WWII and the gun-combat jet age, with a chapter or two on air-to-air missile combat.
The parts I really enjoyed were the dozens of diagrams and discussions of tactics and maneuver (hence, the subtitle of the book): lead pursuit, lag pursuit, yo-yos, head-on passes, etc. There are chapters devoted to one-on-one combat and combat in numbers, with breakouts for planes with similar capabilities and dissimilar planes, such as one with more engine power and another with better maneuverability.
Sprinkled throughout are quotes from famous pilots, e.g. one from MvR where he tells how he would frequently open up fire from too far away, not to hope for a lucky hit but to cause the enemy to start spiraling and turning, which allowed MvR to more easily close the distance in a slower airplane.
I think what was particularly interesting was the "two-on-one", "one-on-two" and "many-on-many" sections which teach (for instance) how to operate more effectively with a wingman.
I'll never master all the suggestions in this book. And, now that I think about it, perhaps I shouldn't have posted this review, because I wouldn't want to come up against someone who had. :-)
Bookmarks