RE: US Navy top ace WW1? (David Ingalls)

SDW@qld.mim.com.au
05 Dec 95 09:52:00 EST

Jess asks:
> What is an OOC victory?

Out Of Control.

In the early days of flying any aircraft which entered a spin was dead
meat (read Sagittarius Rising for an actual WW1 pilots opinion on this).
As a consequence, any aircraft forced out of control in combat was
considered as crashed. Later on, experience and better aircraft allowed
pilots to get out of many such situations, but aircraft driven down OOC
were still considered victories IF the claimant and his confirmation
sources believed that the enemy aircraft (EA) was definitely OOC and
would crash - for example a power on spin near the ground, or a vertical
dive too close to recover without losing wings.

However it's the matter of judgement (and maybe honesty) about whether
the EA was unrecoverable which is at issue, and this is why OOC victories
have recently exercised our minds.

Shane