Two forms of break are possible, depending on the circumstances of the attack. The defender can use a maximum-rate sustained turn in which he does not lose speed, or the hardest possible turn in which he almost certainly does. The speed loss attendant on the hard turn aids his chances of forcing the attacker to overshoot, as does the smaller radius of turn, but oft-quoted maxims such as “speed is life” act as an inhibitor. If the break succeeds in forcing the attacker to overshoot, the next maneuver is the Scissors.
The break is a life-saving maneuver. It is used against an attacker who is about to achieve a firing position (or already has). It consists of a hard turn into the direction of attack, to generate angle-off as rapidly as possible to present the most difficult target.
A pair working as a team is much more effective than two fighters working individually. They guard each other’s visual blind spots and, as illustrated in the Attack Section, hunt as a co-ordinated unit. The wide spacing is dictated by two factors: the long reach of contemporary weaponry, and the large amounts of sky needed for maneuver at high subsonic or transonic speeds. There are few set maneuvers for the pair; just a few general tricks to meet certain situations, as follows.
Back in 1916 the original Immelmann turn was more akin to the vertical reverse than its present-day counterpart. The modern version of the Immelmann is a vertical climb or half loop, possibly aileron-turning during the climb, then rolling out into level flight at the top. Its main value lies in using the vertical plane to change the direction of flight in the smallest possible horizontal space. Horizontal turns at normal fighting speeds take up a lot of room laterally. Using the vertical plane enables the fighter to turn square corners in relation to its position above the ground. This maneuver makes repositioning for a further attack, or to meet a threat, much easier than would be the case using horizontal maneuver only.
The vertical reverse is only for the fighter with exceptional low speed handling. It is used at the end of a vertical climb when all flying speed is lost, the aircraft being ruddered around sharply into a dive.
More often, the low-speed yoyo is used to break a stalemate in a turning fight. The attacker drops his nose to the inside of the turn, then cuts low across the circle before pulling up towards his opponent’s six o’clock. The gain is often marginal, but repeating the process nibbles off a few degrees of angle each time, due to manoeuvring in the vertical plane. The pull-up should be started when a position of about 30 degrees angle-off is reached. It is important that the angle of cut-off is correct or the attacker will arrive in a fly-through situation with too much angle-off as he approaches the target. If this happens then he must endeavour to pull up into a high-speed yoyo.
Defence against the low-speed yoyo takes two forms. The first is to copy the maneuver while remaining in phase with the attacker. This maintains the stalemate. The second counter is more positive. The defender holds the turn until the attacker starts his pull-up. He then eases his turn a trifle, lifts his nose, and makes a rolling descending turn into his opponent.
If the attacking pilot has tried to lead the defender by too much or dived too low by being greedy, the defender can also pull up and barrel down onto the attacker.
Sumber: combataircraft.com
