Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied but is usually considered to be five or more.
Richard Ira "Dick" Bong (September 24, 1920 – August 6, 1945) was a United States Army Air Forces major and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II.He was one of the most decorated American fighter pilots and the country's top flying ace in the war, credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft, all with the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (born Edward Rickenbacher, October 8, 1890 – July 23, 1973) was an American fighter pilot in World War I and a Medal of Honor recipient. [1] [2] With 26 aerial victories, he was the most successful and most decorated United States flying ace of the war. [3]
Ace of aces is a title accorded to the top active ace within a branch of service in a nation's military in time of war. The term ace was used for highly succesfull military profesional that have accumulated multiple kills on enemy aircraft shot down, tanks destroyed, ships sunk, by number or tonnage. [ 1 ]
He was the last living American triple flying ace of World War II. [33] [34] On December 2, he was promoted to the honorary rank of brigadier general by General Charles Q. Brown Jr., the Air Force chief of staff at the Aerospace Museum of California. [35] [36] Anderson died in his sleep at his home in Auburn, California, on May 17, 2024, at the ...
Adolf Josef Ferdinand Galland (19 March 1912 – 9 February 1996) [2] was a German Luftwaffe general and flying ace who served throughout the Second World War in Europe. He flew 705 combat missions and fought on the Western Front and in the Defence of the Reich.
The first single pilot (as opposed to double aviators, as is the case with the previously mentioned Arigi and Lasi) was World War I German flying ace Fritz Otto Bernert. Bernert scored five victories within 20 minutes on 24 April 1917. He had a total of 27 kills during the war, even though he wore glasses and had a useless left arm. [5]
The term ace (now commonly flying ace) was first used by French newspapers during World War I, describing Adolphe Pégoud as l'as ('the ace'), after he downed five German aircraft. When aircraft began to shoot or force down other aircraft, systems to count "air victories" were subsequently developed.