1. Erich “Bubi” Hartmann. Erich Hartmann is the most successful fighter pilot of all times – with 352 kills. A number that will never be surpassed.
Erich Hartmann, with 352 official kills the highest scoring fighter pilot of all time.
While serving in Germany's Luftwaffe in World War II, Erich Hartmann flew more than 1,400 missions in the Messerschmitt Bf 109, enabling him to score an astonishing 352 kills. How did Hartmann get so good at dominating the skies over the Eastern Front?
On 2 June 1995, one F-16C was shot down by a Serb 2K12 Kub SAM (NATO reporting name: SA-6 "Gainful") while on patrol over Bosnia. Its pilot, Scott O'Grady, ejected and was later rescued by USMC CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter on 8 June.
Egyptian S-125s between 1970 and 1973 knocked down around a dozen Israeli jets. In 1991, an Iraqi S-125 battery shot down a U.S. Air Force F-16. More recently, Syrian S-125s have engaged American drones.
The 1954 Cathay Pacific Douglas DC-4 shootdown was an incident on 23 July 1954, when a Cathay Pacific Airways C-54 Skymaster airliner was shot down by People's Liberation Army Air Force fighter aircraft.
Air Commodore Muhammad Mahmood Alam SJ & Bar SI(M) (Bengali: মহম্মদ মাহমুদ আলম; Urdu: محمد محمود عالم) 6 July 1935 – 18 March 2013) was a Bengali fighter pilot officially credited by the Pakistan Air Force with having downed five Indian jets under a minute.
The last dogfights between piston-engine, propeller-driven airplanes weren't fought in the skies over Germany in the 1940s or even Korea in the 1950s. They occurred in Central America in 1969, and all of the combatants were flying U.S.-built Corsairs and Mustangs.
The A-10 force, flying more than 8,000 combat sorties, suffered only five A-10s destroyed (a loss rate of . 062 percent).
There it racked up an impressive tally of 29 air-to-air kills with no losses, against state-of-the-art MiG-29s and other capable fighters.
1. Erich “Bubi” Hartmann. Erich Hartmann is the most successful fighter pilot of all times – with 352 kills. A number that will never be surpassed.
Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, and 12 more were scrapped due to damage – a loss of 77 B-17s.
It's not just a stunt for Top Gun: Cruise is actually an experienced pilot who's been in possession of a professional license since 1994. In an interview with James Corden, Cruise mentioned that he has a flying license for several types of aeroplane, including fighter jets and commercial flights.
Emil Lang shot down 18 Soviet fighters on 3 November 1943, the most kills on a single day by any pilot in history.
The Battle of Kursk
Three million men, eight thousand tanks and five thousand planes broke all previous records for the costliest single day of aerial warfare and the largest tank battle in history.
Greek pilots are frequently voted by their NATO counterparts as being the best in the world.
1991 (Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm) January 17 – An F/A-18C Hornet (Bureau Number 163484) was shot down by an Iraqi Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 in an air-to-air engagement.
Almost all were Army. Total helicopter pilots killed in the Vietnam War was 2,202. Total non-pilot crew members was 2704. Based on a databasefrom the Pentagon, we estimate that over 40,000 helicopter pilots served in the Vietnam War.
Conventional wisdom says slow attack jets like the A-10 can't dogfight. Watch and learn. Below 500' above the ground, nobody would try more than a slashing pass because terrain denies vertical fight. But fighter pilots always assume Hogs can't fight in the vertical, that they're easy kills up high.
The F-15EX is considered one of the best dogfighters among the American jets.
On the evening of July 1, 1915, the very first aerial engagement by a fighter plane armed with a synchronized, forward-firing machine gun occurred just to the east of Luneville, France. The German Fokker E.I was flown by Lieutenant Kurt Wintgens, earning the victory over a French two-seat observation monoplane.
The Dieppe Raid
Considered to be the largest single day of air combat in World War Two, this battle took place between Allied Forces and Germany in 1942.
“Ace” is the title bestowed on those downing 5 enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat. During World War I the press first used the term when referring to French pilot Adolphe Pegoud who scored his 5th kill in July 1915.
Lt. Chuck Yeager of the 357th Fighter Group was one of the first American pilots to shoot down an Me 262, which he caught during its landing approach.