Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!att!cbnews!karn@ka9q.bellcore.com
From: karn@ka9q.bellcore.com (Phil Karn)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Air to air combat
Message-ID: <3337@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 21 Jan 89 02:08:12 GMT
References: <2991@cbnews.ATT.COM> <3206@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Secular Humanists for No-Code
Lines: 16
Approved: military@att.att.com


>>... I don't think letting the pilot get
>>away is intentional. Trained pilots are often harder to replace than
>>planes. 
>
>This was true in WW2.  It is not today.  Modern aircraft are much more
>expensive and much harder to produce on short notice than pilots.  A
>good many air forces haven't figured this out yet, however.

It's questionable if this was true even in WWII. I recently saw a TV
interview with an American WWII fighter pilot. He remarked that he liked to
see Japanese pilots bail out successfully after shooting their planes down --
because he knew they'd be back next week with still more planes he could
destroy.

Phil