loonetik
10-01-2007, 01:45 PM
Cody,
You were asking what Energy was. Take a look at an excerpt from this book In Pursuit: A Pilots Guide to Air Combat (http://pigsonthewing.org/inpursuit.pdf).
The concept of energy is absolutely central to air combat. Without an understanding of
energy or how to deal with disparities of energy under various circumstances, no fighter pilot
can hope to survive. When talking about Energy, or simply “E”, it’s generally assumed that
maintaining a high energy state is the way to go, and that if you have it, you can’t go wrong.
Wrong. Maintaining a high energy state (flying high and fast) is not the be all and end all,
although having it is certainly preferable to not having it. What matters is the comparison
between your energy state and that of the enemy’s, and how these energy states are used.
Thus, energy is always relative – and, having a high energy state is not always a blessing, as
we shall see. That said, he who holds the energy advantage dictates the fight: he is free to
engage and disengage at will.
Your energy state is the sum of your airspeed and your altitude (to be totally true
energy is the sum of airspeed and position relative to the enemy) as created by your
powerplant and conscious choices. Either of these two factors can be traded for the other:
airspeed can be traded for altitude, which can be traded back to airspeed. When you ram that
throttle forward you’re increasing your energy. When you convert some of that speed to
altitude by climbing you’re essentially “putting money in the bank” to be used at a later time.
The wise pilot always maintains a positive bank account! He will need it to execute surprise
attacks, to manoeuvre against sudden threats, to close distances rapidly and to disengage
safely.
Note that a fast fighter at a lower altitude may have the same energy state as a slow
fighter at a higher altitude, although the altitude difference cannot be much more than 2000-
4000 feet and the high fighter needs to go pretty damn slow for them to be energy-neutral.
What’s more, (relative) energy is dependent on position and vectors: the energy total of two
fighters approaching head on is vastly different from that of two fighters pointed away from
each other. Consider a meeting engagement between two co-E, similarly capable, fighters: if
one of them opts to blow right through in the merge his opponent must spend a certain
amount of energy and time to convert to his tail, and by then the disengaging fighter is likely
out of guns range. Thus, your position and vector relative to the enemy is of great energy
value and as such needs to be assessed at every juncture.
The energy equation of speed+altitude+vector is what allows a patently slower fighter to
dominate a technically speaking faster fighter. On paper the slowpoke plane shouldn’t have a
chance, right? Well, with a bit of altitude to be cashed in for speed and distance (from an
advantageous position I should add) almost any plane can be brought to bear against a
supposedly vastly superior fighter. What’s more, that faster fighter isn’t always fast: he may
be cruising at reduced power settings, he may be handicapped by battle damage, he may be
turning, climbing, circling, landing or in a number of other ways remaining essentially
stationary. In such a case his top speed matters little. As in real estate, position is all that
matters.
You can download the book here (http://pigsonthewing.org/inpursuit.pdf) for more information.
Lunatik
You were asking what Energy was. Take a look at an excerpt from this book In Pursuit: A Pilots Guide to Air Combat (http://pigsonthewing.org/inpursuit.pdf).
The concept of energy is absolutely central to air combat. Without an understanding of
energy or how to deal with disparities of energy under various circumstances, no fighter pilot
can hope to survive. When talking about Energy, or simply “E”, it’s generally assumed that
maintaining a high energy state is the way to go, and that if you have it, you can’t go wrong.
Wrong. Maintaining a high energy state (flying high and fast) is not the be all and end all,
although having it is certainly preferable to not having it. What matters is the comparison
between your energy state and that of the enemy’s, and how these energy states are used.
Thus, energy is always relative – and, having a high energy state is not always a blessing, as
we shall see. That said, he who holds the energy advantage dictates the fight: he is free to
engage and disengage at will.
Your energy state is the sum of your airspeed and your altitude (to be totally true
energy is the sum of airspeed and position relative to the enemy) as created by your
powerplant and conscious choices. Either of these two factors can be traded for the other:
airspeed can be traded for altitude, which can be traded back to airspeed. When you ram that
throttle forward you’re increasing your energy. When you convert some of that speed to
altitude by climbing you’re essentially “putting money in the bank” to be used at a later time.
The wise pilot always maintains a positive bank account! He will need it to execute surprise
attacks, to manoeuvre against sudden threats, to close distances rapidly and to disengage
safely.
Note that a fast fighter at a lower altitude may have the same energy state as a slow
fighter at a higher altitude, although the altitude difference cannot be much more than 2000-
4000 feet and the high fighter needs to go pretty damn slow for them to be energy-neutral.
What’s more, (relative) energy is dependent on position and vectors: the energy total of two
fighters approaching head on is vastly different from that of two fighters pointed away from
each other. Consider a meeting engagement between two co-E, similarly capable, fighters: if
one of them opts to blow right through in the merge his opponent must spend a certain
amount of energy and time to convert to his tail, and by then the disengaging fighter is likely
out of guns range. Thus, your position and vector relative to the enemy is of great energy
value and as such needs to be assessed at every juncture.
The energy equation of speed+altitude+vector is what allows a patently slower fighter to
dominate a technically speaking faster fighter. On paper the slowpoke plane shouldn’t have a
chance, right? Well, with a bit of altitude to be cashed in for speed and distance (from an
advantageous position I should add) almost any plane can be brought to bear against a
supposedly vastly superior fighter. What’s more, that faster fighter isn’t always fast: he may
be cruising at reduced power settings, he may be handicapped by battle damage, he may be
turning, climbing, circling, landing or in a number of other ways remaining essentially
stationary. In such a case his top speed matters little. As in real estate, position is all that
matters.
You can download the book here (http://pigsonthewing.org/inpursuit.pdf) for more information.
Lunatik