Wich era of Air-Air combat you like most ?

[MBot]

A little poll to stuff the summer hole: Wich era of air-air combat you like most ?

 

I know that the eras of air-air combat can't be clearly defined and that the borders are fluent. But I am sure you get the general idea.

Please feel free to comment why you like or dislike a certain era of air-air combat.

 

 

I realy like the 1960s and 70s. For me air combat is about dogfighting and getting on someones tail. I realy love the work of maneuvering your plane for a areal victory, rather than to work the avionics ( altough I like this too ). And I also like powerfull jets. The 1960s and 70s seems to me like the best of both worlds. The 60s are a bit more orientated to the old times of gunfights because missles are still in their childhood. The 70s on the other hand are a bit more orientated towards the new style to come. Air-air combat is still largely about getting on someones tail, but now the missle has replaced the gun as the primary weapon. The 70s also bring you a bit of BVR combat if the conditions are favourable. Nothing dominating yet, but enough to add more diversity to the mix. The 70s also see the introduction of HUDs and more relying on radar. The best time is perhaps around 1978 with the F-14 Tomcat. A realy great mix of old style rear aspect dogfighting, some BVR combat, modernish avionics and a sexy jet.

 

Next on my list are perhaps the 1980s ( for air-air, for air-ground the 80s are top ). The BVR age finaly has begun, but SARH missles keep the challange high and dogfights are still a common thing ( altough with all aspect heaters now ). Also BVR capable fighters are still somehow something special, as not every strike plane carrys BVR missles itselfe yet.

 

With the 1990s air-air combat goes downhill for me. Amraams and too much computers are taking away my enjoyment. In realy modern flightsims I prefere air-ground therefore.

[609_Recon]

I'd love to see a Mig Alley remake

[Ice]

So Far my favourite era for Air to Air combat is LO-MAC Flaming Cliffs Era :icon_pidu

[GoonerTC]

I agree with 609_Recon, Sabre V Mig has a lot more appeal than spits v 109's. Mig alley was a class game and if they made it with LOMAC graphics and flight dynamics it would be a very special game.

[Jester_159th]

I'd love to see a Mig Alley remake

 

You're going to get your wish Game here in the UK (equivalent of EB in the US) has Mig Alley 2 on it's coming soon list. They've got a release date posted of November 4th.

 

Unfortunately there's no other details at present, but I would imagine that the name is still copyrighted, so I can't see it being anything but a sequel.

 

 

 

BTW, MBot, you missed my personal choice out of the poll:

 

If it's got wings I love it!!!

[Rastus]

For me, Lockon got it just right.

The BVR capability combined with the chance of getting in close and personal make for a great all round sim. A sim where the better pilot will have the advantage as opposed to the pilot with the best onboard computer. Where missiles can still be avoided, but are effective enough to complete the mission objective. Where the jets are still flown by the pilot instead of the onboard computer.

 

For me; 80's followed by the 70's.

 

One can't argue the popularity of the prop sim though, a look in hyperlobby will show a hundred + players in FB at any time. I just prefer the jets.

 

Cheers

[Achilles]

Good poll.

 

For me the seventies. Less BVR and more close up missile work, and you had to work hard for a good shot. Great fun in Falcon 4 FF.

[Pilotasso]

voted 1980's but BVR was not the domain of interceptors only. One example of this was the fact that the F-18 and even the F-16 could carry the AIM-7 Sparrow.

[Cobra360]

Yeah, the great white hope. BVR combat was a hit or miss afair in the 80s, no pun intended.

[SUBS17]

Yeah that was the good thing about it, both sides were fairly even and you had to work to get a kill. Not just simply press a button 3 times and kill 3 aircraft like it is today. Also a/g was more fun, again not all digital where bombs use gps. Again you had to work for it.

[MBot]

Interesting results. Altough because the number of participants is far from being represantive, it is still a nice indication. I almost expected that the 80s would come out on top. I am a bit surprised tough about the low percentage the 60s and 70s got. Considering the large coverage in literature of the Vietnam war and the arab-israeli air wars I expected them to be more popular. Also because many of the current simmers grew up and got adicted to aviation in these times.

 

 

Pilotasso:

You are right about the F/A-18, I didn't think about it.

But the F-16 started to carry Sparrows only starting from 1989 ( aboard F-16 ADF and F-16C ).

So I would still say that BVR was generaly still the domain of interceptors in the 1980s.

[nunsuch]

I chose the 1980's because it was the closest to what I like the best which is about 1985-1995 '70's and WW1 would be my second choices.

 

I like the 80's because of the interceptors and diversity of combat, almost every fighter could do some ground attack and dogfights still happened due to the shortcomings of BVR missiles. The USSR at the time was at the hight of its spending before its collapse. Aicraft like the F-18A F-16A/C, F-15C, F-14A/B, Mirage 2000, Mig-29, Mig-31B, Su-27 are some of my all time favorites, especially the interceptors. I like the missiles like the AIM-9's, AIM-7M, AIM-54's, Super 530, Magic II, R-60, R73, R-27R because they are reliable but not fantastically effective. The Iran Iraq war and Angola and Ethiopia are wars that were somewhat more even than at other times.

 

I like the 70's because aircraft have their specific purpose and tend to be more streight foreward such as the F-4, A-6, F-5, Mig-21 Mirage's Mig-25's Su-17 etc. missiles were still unreliable and had to be used under very specific conditions makeing dog fighting the main air combat battlefield.

[Hellcat61]

I love the 70's/80's because those years contain my favorite aircraft. But as far as the era of flight I respect most, it has to go to the Korean War 50's. Those guys had to be the best. Flying jets but using WWII style weaopns. I think no pilots are better than those who fought in that era.