"Jack" wrote in message
. com...
Richard Riley wrote:

As long as we're linking to obscure monographs on aerial combat....

The links may be hard to find, but there is nothing obscure about the
contributions of Blesse, nor of Boyd. Boyd in particular improved our
understanding of modern air fighting.

Also read, "Full Circle: The Tactics Of Air Fighting, 1914-1964" for an
over-view of the earlier history of air combat.


Jack

"40 second Boyd" was a legend in the Air Force. I knew him and have on our
den wall a painting of the research T38 I used for coupling departure
testing autographed by John.
There was a standing bet in the O Club at Nellis that John could convert in
a 100 in a heartbeat on any fighter pilot in the Air Force with John
starting defensive at 12 o'clock and the "victim" in the saddle on his six.
To my knowledge, John was never beaten on this standing bet.
He was a direct talker and a no crap guy who might have made it a lot higher
had he kept his mouth shut and played the game required for promotion over
an O6 pay grade, but that wasn't his style :-)
John, and Christie, and Rutowski, and the rest of the energy guys gave us
not only our modern ACM and tactics doctrine, but also a much needed basis
for dissimilar comparison data 1v1.
I think I'm fairly safe in saying that John and his "buddies" in the boiler
house gang gave us the entire approach we use today not only in ACM, but is
modern flight test analysis.
I would also add to John's many accomplishments by saying that even some
average non flying guy starting a small business in today's world would
benefit greatly from a thorough study the OODA loop! :-)

Keep that Ps positive John, and thanks!
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship