dogfight

…a significant advantage in a dogfight. With this realization and with the aid of aircraft manufactured with enhanced aerobatic capabilities, pilots began to develop a growing range of aerobatic maneuvers, principally for evading enemy airplanes. Such skills were entirely self-taught or acquired from comrades in arms, and only late in…

In the days of aerial “dogfights” during World War I, light machine guns were synchronized to fire through the airplane’s propeller, and by the end of the war, fighters such as the German Fokker D.VII and the French Spad were attaining speeds of 135 miles (215 km) per hour. Most…