• Smithsonian
    Institution
  • Smithsonian
    Journeys
  • Smithsonian
    Store
  • Smithsonian
    Channel
  • goSmithsonian
    Visitors Guide
  • Smithsonian
    magazine

AirSpaceMag.com

  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • History of Flight
  • Flight Today
  • Military Aviation
  • Space Exploration
  • Need to Know
  • How Things Work
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Blogs
  • Need to Know

What does it take to become an "ace"?

And has anyone ever been stripped of that status?

| | | Reddit | Digg | Stumble | Email | More
  • By Rebecca Maksel
  • AirSpaceMag.com, April 07, 2008
View More Photos »
French ace Adolphe Pégoud in a Blériot XI at Buc France in December 1913. French ace Adolphe Pégoud in a Blériot XI at Buc, France in December 1913.

Library of Congress, courtesy NASM (SI 2001-11634)

Photo Gallery (1/2)

American World War II ace Major Richard Bong poses in 1945 beside his Lockheed-38J Lightning and its display of kill marks.

See more photos from the story


Perry Turner, Air & Space's esteemed copy chief, asks: "Can you explain the whole 'aces' thing? How did it get started, and, has anyone ever been "de-aced"?

The term "ace" is unofficially bestowed on those pilots and weapon systems officers who have shot down five enemy aircraft. The label became popular among military pilots during World War I, when French newspapers christened Adolphe Pégoud as l'as after he downed several German airplanes.

Raymond Toliver and Trevor Constable's 1965 book, Fighter Aces, notes that although the British, like the Americans, never officially accepted the term, "The British, French and Germans set ten confirmed aerial victories as the standard qualification for an ace.... When American air units had still not gone into action at the beginning of 1918, the likelihood of any American pilot scoring ten kills before Germany's collapse seemed remote. Accordingly, it was decided to reduce the American qualification for an ace to five aerial victories....The same standard of five now applies generally throughout the world."

Even more confusing, the United States has changed the rules for achieving "ace" status from one war to the next. The Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, describes how aces got dealt down through the years: "In World War I, a flyer earned a whole aerial victory for each of the aircraft he helped to bring down. In World War II and the Korean War, the credit for bringing down a single enemy aircraft was divided into fractions for each of the flyers who contributed to the victory. In Vietnam, if an F-4 crew shot down one enemy airplane, both the pilot and the weapon systems officer each earned a whole aerial victory credit. During the Persian Gulf War, the fractional system of World War II and the Korean War was used again."

The U.S. Navy, in contrast, has never officially compiled or issued a list of aces. The Naval Historical Center notes, "During World War II, the war period with the largest number of aerial shoot downs for naval flyers, the Navy did not keep an overall record of individual scores in aerial combat, hence, there is no official list of confirmed shoot-downs." There is, however, an unofficial list posted on the center's web site.

What about comparisons across enemy lines? Were German World War II aces any better than their American adversaries? Germany's Lt. Col. Erich Hartmann was credited with a staggering 352 aerial victories during the war, while the top U.S. ace, Maj. Richard Bong, bagged a mere 40. Historians Toliver and Constable examined the evidence and concluded that while German pilots were certainly skilled, they simply saw more action than their allied foes, and so chalked up higher scores. On the Russian front alone, German pilots were outnumbered 20 to 1, but they easily defeated inferior Soviet pilots early in the war (the balance shifted as the war progressed).

Moreover, unlike their Allied opponents, German fighter pilots lacked the luxury of rotating out of combat for morale-building leave or new assignments. Toliver and Constable noted that the average German pilot flew 1,000 to 2,000 missions throughout the war, while the most active Allied fighter pilots flew just 250 to 400.

"One American pilot with 254 missions actually fired his guns at an airborne target only 83 times, and this may well be the best record of any American pilot," said Toliver and Constable. "In gaining his 352 aerial victories, which establish him as the leading fighter ace of the world and of all time, [then] Major Erich Hartmann flew 1,425 missions. Many times Hartmann flew from two to seven missions a day.... He was involved in more than 800 actual aerial combats."

Perry Turner, Air & Space's esteemed copy chief, asks: "Can you explain the whole 'aces' thing? How did it get started, and, has anyone ever been "de-aced"?

The term "ace" is unofficially bestowed on those pilots and weapon systems officers who have shot down five enemy aircraft. The label became popular among military pilots during World War I, when French newspapers christened Adolphe Pégoud as l'as after he downed several German airplanes.

Raymond Toliver and Trevor Constable's 1965 book, Fighter Aces, notes that although the British, like the Americans, never officially accepted the term, "The British, French and Germans set ten confirmed aerial victories as the standard qualification for an ace.... When American air units had still not gone into action at the beginning of 1918, the likelihood of any American pilot scoring ten kills before Germany's collapse seemed remote. Accordingly, it was decided to reduce the American qualification for an ace to five aerial victories....The same standard of five now applies generally throughout the world."

Even more confusing, the United States has changed the rules for achieving "ace" status from one war to the next. The Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, describes how aces got dealt down through the years: "In World War I, a flyer earned a whole aerial victory for each of the aircraft he helped to bring down. In World War II and the Korean War, the credit for bringing down a single enemy aircraft was divided into fractions for each of the flyers who contributed to the victory. In Vietnam, if an F-4 crew shot down one enemy airplane, both the pilot and the weapon systems officer each earned a whole aerial victory credit. During the Persian Gulf War, the fractional system of World War II and the Korean War was used again."

The U.S. Navy, in contrast, has never officially compiled or issued a list of aces. The Naval Historical Center notes, "During World War II, the war period with the largest number of aerial shoot downs for naval flyers, the Navy did not keep an overall record of individual scores in aerial combat, hence, there is no official list of confirmed shoot-downs." There is, however, an unofficial list posted on the center's web site.

What about comparisons across enemy lines? Were German World War II aces any better than their American adversaries? Germany's Lt. Col. Erich Hartmann was credited with a staggering 352 aerial victories during the war, while the top U.S. ace, Maj. Richard Bong, bagged a mere 40. Historians Toliver and Constable examined the evidence and concluded that while German pilots were certainly skilled, they simply saw more action than their allied foes, and so chalked up higher scores. On the Russian front alone, German pilots were outnumbered 20 to 1, but they easily defeated inferior Soviet pilots early in the war (the balance shifted as the war progressed).

Moreover, unlike their Allied opponents, German fighter pilots lacked the luxury of rotating out of combat for morale-building leave or new assignments. Toliver and Constable noted that the average German pilot flew 1,000 to 2,000 missions throughout the war, while the most active Allied fighter pilots flew just 250 to 400.

"One American pilot with 254 missions actually fired his guns at an airborne target only 83 times, and this may well be the best record of any American pilot," said Toliver and Constable. "In gaining his 352 aerial victories, which establish him as the leading fighter ace of the world and of all time, [then] Major Erich Hartmann flew 1,425 missions. Many times Hartmann flew from two to seven missions a day.... He was involved in more than 800 actual aerial combats."

As for whether any pilots have lost their "ace" status-the answer is no, according to Daniel Haulman, chief of the organizational histories branch of the Air Force. "I am not aware of any case in which an Air Force (or Army Air Forces) member who was listed by the Air Force with at least five aerial victory credits had his total officially reduced to less than five, removing his ace status." However, he continues, "There have been many cases in which someone claimed to be an ace but was never recognized by the Air Force as an ace because there was no documentation to confirm that the award of a fifth aerial victory was ever officially made."

A well-known case in point: Lee Archer served with the 302nd Fighter Squadron during World War II and was awarded four aerial victory credits (AVC) during his service. He did not claim a fifth AVC at the time, although he did years later. Unfortunately, notes Patsy Robertson, a historian with the Air Force Historical Research Agency, there isn't any official documentation to validate his claim.

What's required? According to Air Force Instruction 84-105, the following will validate an AVC: (1) An official order awarding it, and (2) A victory credit board report from the time showing an award of a credit.

You hear that, Ace? Get your proof and paperwork in order.


Single Page 1 2 Next »

Got a nagging question about aviation or space? Use our online submission form, and we'll do our best to answer it. Or maybe we already have.


| | | Reddit | Digg | Stumble | Email | More
 
Comments (2)

Given a basic understanding of the physics of flight (air flow over a dihedral creates a vacuum, etc), how does an aircraft maintain flight inverted?

Posted by Hugh Clark on January 22,2013 | 12:37 PM

how do you become an ACE pilot?

Posted by SHAWN OGLESBY on April 23,2013 | 03:57 PM

Post a Comment


Name: (required)

Email: (required)

Comment:

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until Smithsonian.com has approved them. Smithsonian reserves the right not to post any comments that are unlawful, threatening, offensive, defamatory, invasive of a person's privacy, inappropriate, confidential or proprietary, political messages, product endorsements, or other content that might otherwise violate any laws or policies.



Advertisement


Most Popular

  • Viewed
  • Emailed
  • Commented
  • Topics
  1. Panthers At Sea
  2. The Navy Gets a Panther
  3. NASA Art on Tour
  4. Area 51: Origins
  5. Where Have All the Shuttle Engineers Gone?
  6. Driving the Space Shuttle
  7. Bush Pilot Hall of Fame
  8. Inside a Flying Fortress
  9. Alaska and the Airplane
  10. The 727 that Vanished
  1. The Galileo Project
  2. When Pigs Could Fly
  3. Where Have All the Phantoms Gone?
  1. Refueling Angel Thunder
  2. The Rocket Ships
  3. A Family Affair
  4. Leesburg Air Show
  5. Yellow 10
  6. Cause Unknown
  7. Where Have All the Phantoms Gone?
  8. The Women’s RAF
  9. Glacier Girl
  10. Warbirds Over the Beach
  1. Bombers
  2. Vietnam War
  3. Cold War Era
  4. Aerospace Inventions
  5. Golden Age of Flight
  6. 21st Century Aviation
  7. Experimental Aircraft
  8. 20th Century Aviation
  9. Air Racing
  10. Aerospace Technology
  11. Military Aviators

View All Most Popular »

Advertisement


Follow Us

Air & Space Magazine
@airspacemag
Follow Air & Space Magazine on Twitter

Sign up for regular email updates from Smithsonian.com, including daily newsletters and special offers.

Popular Videos

  • Newest
  • Most Viewed

Flightseeing on Mount McKinley

(01:46)

A New Way to Navigate

(02:01)

X-47B Carrier Launch

(01:25)

SpaceShipTwo Fires Up

(02:58)

View All Newest Videos »

The Mach-2 Bomber That Never Was

(01:21)

SpaceShipTwo Fires Up

(02:58)

X-47B Carrier Launch

(01:25)

How to Bag an Asteroid

(03:52)

View All Videos »

In the Magazine

July 2013

  • Where Have All the Shuttle Engineers Gone?
  • Panthers At Sea
  • Earth-Like Planets Could be Right Next Door
  • Alaska and the Airplane
  • The Pilots of Mount McKinley

View Table of Contents »

Snapshot

Off to the Races

This Lockheed Lightning is ready to go.

Reader Scrapbook

Discovery's Tail-Cone Fitting

Check out our scrapbook of readers' aviation and space pictures. Then add your own.


Smithsonian Store

In the Cockpit and In the Cockpit II

Current and retired curators from our National Air and Space Museum contribute the insightful text and striking images... $48.99

Smithsonian Journeys

Smithsonian at Chautauqua: The Elegant Universe

Join us in western New York and explore the mysteries of the cosmos with experts (Jun 22 - 29, 2013)




View full archiveRecent Issues


  • Jul 2013


  • May 2013


  • Mar 2013

Newsletter

Sign up for regular email updates from Air & Space magazine, including free newsletters, special offers and current news updates.

Subscribe Now

About Us

Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine has been delighting aerospace enthusiasts with the best writing about their favorite subject since April 1986. As an adjunct of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Air & Space matches the grand scope of the Museum, encompassing every era of aviation and space exploration. With stories that range from the Wright Brothers to the design of NASA's next lunar lander, Air & Space emphasizes the human stories as well as the technology of aviation and spaceflight.

Explore our Brands

  • goSmithsonian.com
  • Smithsonian Air & Space Museum
  • Smithsonian Student Travel
  • Smithsonian Catalogue
  • Smithsonian Journeys
  • Smithsonian Channel
  • About Air & Space
  • Contact Us
  • Advertising
  • Subscribe
  • RSS
  • Topics
  • Member Services
  • Copyright
  • Site Map
  • Privacy Policy
  • Ad Choices

Smithsonian Institution