Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: willey@arrakis.NEVADA.EDU (Adm. Pavel Chekov)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Dogfighting
Message-ID: <7646@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 21 Jun 89 02:48:53 GMT
References: <7471@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7514@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7590@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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Organization: Univ of Nevada System Computing Services - Las Vegas
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From: willey@arrakis.NEVADA.EDU (Adm. Pavel Chekov)


In article <7590@cbnews.ATT.COM> wolit@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (Jan Wolitzky) writes:
:From: wolit@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (Jan Wolitzky)
:
:> From: bill@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu (William S. Smith)
:> In 1958 on a flight out of Taiwan an air force pilot, who was returning from
:> a tour teaching the Chinese Nationalists how to beat the MIGs with F86s,
:> told me, a non-aviator, that his technique for solving the agility problem
:> was to allow the MIG to get on his tail, pop the flaps, and fire a
:> sidewinder as the MIG streaked past - always provided that the MIG didn't
:> get off a shot first, of course.  It sounds as if the speeds and distances
:> have changed, but not much else!
:
:I recall that this technique was used with success by British Harrier
:pilots against Argentine Mirages during the Falklands/Malvinas
:conflict.  The Harrier pilot would rotate his exhaust nozzles from
:their normal rearward-pointing position (in forward flight) through the
:downward-pointing position used for vertical flight, until they pointed
:a bit forward, providing some reverse thrust.  Not sure whether dive
:brakes were used as well, but the plane slowed down in a hurry.  The
:Mirage pilot was obviously unable to maintain his position on the
:Harrier's tail, and provided a good target for a Sidewinder as it went
:past.  The British pilots dubbed the maneuver "vff-ing," though I
:forget exactly what the "VF" stood for -- "vertical flight" or "vector
:forward" or something like that.
:

	I was reading a book about the air war in the Falklands, sorry, I
forget the title, which went into some of the Harrier combat maneuvers made
possible by its unique thrust vectoring. The majority of them involved letting
the enemy get on your tail [right where you want him]. One of the most
interesting things to do once you got the enemy on your tail was to execute
a loop. As the Harrier approached the top of the loop, if the enemy was still
following, the thrust was vectored down, but since the plane is inverted, the
thrust is actually up, forcing the plane down. After the Harrier starts to
fall, the plane goes through a half roll and the thrust, now vectored down,
slows the descent of the Harrier. The thrust is then vectored to normal 
flight configuration, and with a bit of luck, the enemy is now in your sights.
Provided that the enemy pilot follows you into the loop, there isn't much
he can do except pray, or so the theory goes.
	I'll try to find find out which book it was. If your interested, I'll
E-Mail you the title and ISBN. I would recommend Military Lessons of the 
Falkland Islands War to anybody interested in the subject. It breaks
everything down into basic categories, so its easy to find what you want.