Wings 02/28/2002 (2002)

Fighters, part two.

The issue is dedicated to the pilots-aces of the Second World War.

According to the norms of the First World Ace, a pilot was considered who had 5 confirmed victories.

This standard was accepted by all, but not by Germany.

The Germans generally ruled out the term "as", replacing it with "expert."

The number of victories is a necessary, but insufficient, sign of an expert.

Professionalism is the essence of the German school of fighter pilots.

By standard standards, 2,500 Luftwaffe pilots could be considered aces, but the real number of experts was 5 times less, only about 500 fighters were awarded the Knight's Cross.

The initial period of the war was an absolute nightmare for Soviet aviation, German experts on excellent aircraft, in addition, had experience of the First World War, easily were being cut off with Soviet pilots on old technology.

But among them were real aces who did the impossible, and by the middle of the war the Soviet aviation industry was able to create planes that surpassed enemy planes.

By 1943, the initiative in air battles was transferred to Russian pilots.

The only thing our pilots could not do was to outperform the German experts in their performance.

In the program fragments of the feature film "Some Old Men Are Going to the Battle" (1973, director LF Bykov), as well as shooting at the Nizhny Novgorod Aircraft Building Plant "Sokol" and the Moscow RAC "MiG" about the creation of modern combat aircraft.