
Be wary that drag and weight are detrimental to speed, as they severely restrict your ability to obtain or maintain speed. Speed / velocity Perhaps the most basic of all energy factors, the amount of speed (velocity) an aircraft has is manipulated by the amount of thrust put out, or the amount of altitude traded in. However, energy is also influenced by the state of many smaller factors:ġ. Primarily the amount of energy or energy state is dependent on how you chose to fly your aircraft: if you make a hard 9G turn you will bleed a lot of energy, versus a 3G turn that keeps you in a pure pursuit that will only lose you a small amount of energy. injection carburettors.Perhaps the most important factor in every aspect of fighting against other aircraft (and even against ground based threats) is the notion of energy (fighting): the state of energy of a given aircraft can often make or break an engagement.Įnergy is the sum total amount of power you can express at a given time (and you ideally want as much as possible at any time). carburettors to Bendix-Stromberg pressure carburettors, and later to S.U. The beginnings of a solution was provided by " Miss Shilling's orifice", a fuel-flow restriction device, and was finally solved by changing from the original S.U. This could be prevented by rolling the aircraft before starting the dive, but doing so took up enough time to give the German pilots an excellent chance of escaping. The Merlin engine used in British fighters was carburetted, and the float valves would malfunction under negative g-force leading to reduced power or a stalled engine (The German fighters were not subject to this problem since they used fuel injection). The split S without a beginning half-roll was a standard maneuver in early World War II by German pilots seeking to evade British fighters. A much tighter maneuver is therefore possible with the half roll. Most combat aircraft frames are also designed to pull more Gs in their positive aspects (upward to the aircraft), rather than negative (downward to the aircraft). The reasons for starting the split S maneuver from the inverted position include the fact that people tolerate acceleration ("g-force") applied from head to feet several times better than the reverse direction, as much as 9g versus 3g. Misjudgements can arise from a lack of situational awareness or from an error in reading instruments. The split S, being a descending maneuver, means that the pilot must ensure that it is started high enough to complete the half-loop the exact minimum altitude depends on factors like the aircraft's speed, weight and maneuverability, likewise the terrain below the plane. Air Force Thunderbirds Captain Chris Stricklin ejects from his F-16 during an airshow at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, after he attempts a "split S" maneuver with insufficient altitude In basic terms, the Immelmann and split S are very similar, both accomplishing the same reversal in course, but the split S exchanges altitude to gain speed, while the Immelmann turn exchanges speed to gain altitude. The split S is also called a reversed Immelmann turn and can also be written with a hyphen: split-S. The split S is contrasted with the Immelmann turn, which is an ascending half-loop that finishes with a half-roll out, resulting in level flight in the opposite direction at a higher altitude.

It can be an effective tactic to prevent an enemy behind (between four o'clock and eight o'clock positions) from gaining a missile lock-on while one is disengaging from a fight. The split S is taught to be used in dogfighting when the pilot has the opportunity to withdraw from battle. To execute a split S, the pilot half-rolls their aircraft inverted and executes a descending half-loop, resulting in level flight in the opposite direction at a lower altitude. The split S is an Aerobatic maneuver and an air combat maneuver mostly used to disengage from combat.
