

Most kills are scored by flight and squadron leaders. The second important factor is rank: it must not be too low nor too high. On the other hand, in a target-rich environment, such as that which the RAF faced at Malta, any pilot will eventually become an ace if he survives long enough. In WWII, only 50% of American fighter pilots ever met Axis airplanes in the air. The most important factor is luck that is, to actually meet enemies and face them in the air. Note that Improbable Piloting Skills or Improbable Aiming Skills do not guarantee anyone becoming an ace. They also may only be Graceful in Their Element, and are (though not The Klutz) plodding on land. Famous aces may be given a cool-sounding nickname like, oh, say, the Red Baron.

An Ace who excels even beyond other aces is known as an Ace of Aces, a title typically granted only to a nation's highest scoring ace.Īn ace pilot is not necessarily The Ace in terms of personality, although they can be. Depending on the time period, may wear an Adventurer Outfit. They will often have Machine Empathy, allowing them to sense problems from subtle differences in how their craft moves/feels/sounds, especially if flying their Ace Custom. They tend to be more prominent in Real Robot shows, where the mecha themselves are fairly equal and the pilot's skills are more important, than in Super Robot shows, which place more emphasis on the power of the mecha.Īn ace pilot will likely display all sorts of Improbable Piloting Skills, such as the High-Speed Missile Dodge. Ace pilots are common in fiction, most prominently in mecha shows and any Space Opera featuring space fighter planes.
LIFE TV PILOT HOW TO
note Indeed, most Air Force combat training is in how to avoid getting shot down. As well as anyone has been able to determine, aces are born, not trained. The term is most commonly associated with aircraft pilots, but other types, such as tank aces, also exist. In World War II, only about 5% of pilots made ace, and they were responsible for 50% of all air-to-air kills.

This is harder than it sounds even in conflicts like World War II, where aerial combat occurred on a vast scale, the average fighter pilot had zero confirmed kills from the day he got his wings to the day he bought his farm. In Real Life, an ace is technically a pilot with five or more kills.
