MANUALI

THE S.U.R.E. PROJECT
 

a cura di Emanuele Chiodi

Lecture 6

 

THE ENERGY MANEUVERABILITY CONCEPT AND RECCOMENDED AIR TACTICS FOR THE 104

 

FOREWORD

Ever since that first dogfight occurred, somewhere in the skies over France, arguments and confusion have highlighted discussions about Air Combat Tactics. Due to the fluid dynamic situation of aerial combat, AGT have never remained completely "static" for any prolonged period of time. It is true that between armed conflicts wherein successful AGT were developed at the expense of life and machines, certain earth-bound theorists have attempted to turn Doctrine into Dogma. But human nature has always instigated another war that bred new weapons and new developments in Air Combat Tactics, Also, technological progress dictates to the professional fighter pilot that he constantly conduct open-minded studies to achieve his mission -to shoot down the enemy! The sincerely dedicate fighter pilot knows that not only skill in fliying but well planned tactics are his prime tools of trade. Skill can only be acquired by flight experience, but tactics and planned maneuvering begin with study while still on Terra Firma. All studies and planning, however, are limited in scope and cannot cover all possibie situations in aerial combat. But, by putting ourselves in "canned" situations and studying the possible tactics, we can prepare ourselves to evaluate situations as they develop. A distressing fact about current literature and training methods is that both are outdated and obsolete. All defensive and offensive maneuvers are based on the assumption that the two competitive aircraft have nearly equal performance. This can result in a revolting development such as training a pilot in a Mach 2.0 fighter to engage a Mach . 9 fighter with rnaneuvers that are strictly advantageous to the slower aircraft0 We all know that aerial history is laced with exploits of smart, aggressive pilots overcoming performance deficiencies and shooting down aircraft that have superior performance. Therefore today's tactics and training directly commit a cardinal "sin" of the Rules of Engagernent: Do not engage an enemy on his terms.

At the beginning of the large jet aerial battles in Korea, a comparison of the Mig-15 vs. the F-86 led many theorists to prophesy a high Mig-15 kill ratio over the F-86. But past history that was spelled out in those long vanished contrails over the Yalu revealed the error of their thinking. They neglected the most important factors of all- -individual pilot courage and skill. Yet the Mig-15 pilots committed the greater error--they engaged the F-86's without taking proper tactical advantage of their superior rate of climb and higher flight ceiling. Too often we look at our opponent’ s past weaknesses and fall prey to the assumption that our opponent is neither as skilled nor courageous as we are and that he will not fly his aircraft to its maximum. This is fallacious thinking and should be avoided. Any study of ACT should assume just the opposite and that is my posture in this lecture.

In researching information for this lecture, I have discovered two forward thinking tacticians. They are Maj. John R. Boyd and Lt. Col. Everest E. Riccioni of the USAF. Maj. Boyd has done extensive work in performance comparisons and is the leading exponent of the Energy Maneuverability concept. Lt. Col. Riccioni is a thinking-man’s fighter pilot, discoverer of and erudite proponent of the Double Attack System.

 

So that you will be able to properly utilize all of the capability that exists in the F-l04, this lecture has been written to answer the questions:

What is Energy Maneuverability?

How can you apply Energy Maneuverability in Air Combat Tactics?

Why does Energy Maneuverability used with the Double Attack System give you the greatest effectiveness in fulfilling your mission?

 

SECTION I

Aircraft Maneuverability in relation to Air Combat Tactics

 

When you search among fighter pilots for a definition of aircraft maneuverability, you will encounter many terms used to describe this characteristic. Roll rate, pitch rate, wing loading, available thrust, induced drag, turn radius and g capability. From historical records it appears that in the opinion of fighter pilots in World War I and up to the end of World War II, g capability, or turn radius, was their important criteria for aircraft maneuverability. For the combat pilots of those times, just a small advantage in turning was all-important. First, tight turning as a defensive maneuver to lose the attacker and on offense, to pull that slight lead angle needed to "score" when you were on the opponent’s tail in a Lufbery. With relatively equal performing aircraft, a turn advantage will always be important if the engagement is one of turning maneuvers, It was not until the closing days of World War Il when the ME-262 suddenly appeared that turn capability" lost its predominance and climb rate along with higher speed became the overpowering factors in the combat picture, Immediately after World War Il, the important lessons of higher performance vs0 low speed turn capability were forgotten. With the introduction of jet fighters around the world, the schoolroom tactics and flying training again settled into a mold that was based upon aircraft with comparable performance capability. Therefore, turn radius once again assumed a tactically important characteristic for aircraft maneuverability. Korea did not upset the tactician’s thinking about the requirement for turn advantage. And even up to today, many pilots are primarily interested in how many g’s they can pull at various speeds arid altitudes. This type of information is given in all fighter handbooks in V-g plots and they are supposed to depict turn capability in a manner consistent with the pilot’ s background training and his cockpit instrumentation. But, I will now show you how this diagram, while interesting, is worthless in planning ACT.

Suppose you want to compare the turn radius of different fighter aircraft in order to develop tactics. The first thing we must do is to derive the equation for turn radius. This can be done by drawing our Starfighter in a turn and summing up the forces acting on the aircraft.

 

TURN AT CONSTANT ALTITUDE AND CONSTANT SPEED

immagine lect6sect1.1.JPG (30525 byte)    immagine lect6sec1.2.JPG (42263 byte)

 

First of all, I think you will notice that this diagram is quite complex. Not only are there multiple, overlapping altitude lines, but the progressive limits to the right show how the maximum allowable speed is diminished due to the decrease in directional stability level for increasing angle of attack. The sudden step change on the Mach 2. 0 lines down to Mach 1. 9 is that same point of minimum desired directional stability level that I discussed with you on pages 15 and 16 of SURE Lecture 1.

The next shortcorning of the V-g diagram is its failure to show any effect of maneuvering flaps. And finally, the clincher is that any normal load factor read from this diagram and put into our equation:

R=V²/gvan²-1

will only give a relative measure of INSTANTANEOUS MANEUVERABILIT Any effect of pulling sustained load factors and losing or gaining altitude is not shown on the V-g diagram. For ACT planning, you must be able to analyze the effects of SUSTAINED MANEUVERING.

Therefore, we have to refer to Maj. Boyd and his studies and refinements of the Energy Maneuverbility concept.