In World War II and the Korean War, the credit for bringing down a single enemy aircraft was divided into fractions for each of the flyers who contributed to the victory. The Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, describes how aces got dealt down through the years: "In World War I, a flyer earned a whole aerial victory for each of the aircraft he helped to bring down. Accordingly, it was decided to reduce the American qualification for an ace to five aerial victories.The same standard of five now applies generally throughout the world."Įven more confusing, the United States has changed the rules for achieving "ace" status from one war to the next. When American air units had still not gone into action at the beginning of 1918, the likelihood of any American pilot scoring ten kills before Germany's collapse seemed remote. Raymond Toliver and Trevor Constable's 1965 book, Fighter Aces, notes that although the British, like the Americans, never officially accepted the term, "The British, French and Germans set ten confirmed aerial victories as the standard qualification for an ace. The label became popular among military pilots during World War I, when French newspapers christened Adolphe Pégoud as l'as after he downed several German airplanes. The term "ace" is unofficially bestowed on those pilots and weapon systems officers who have shot down five enemy aircraft.
0 kommentar(er)
