page_title: Basic fighter maneuvers
section_title: Pursuit curves
hierarchical_section_title: Basic fighter maneuvers / Principles / Pursuit curves
caption_attribution_description: English: Pursuit curves are determined by the angle off tail (AOT). Image from United States Navy - Naval Air Training Command (NAS Corpus Christi, Texas) Flight training instruction manual. (Rev. 08-06 CNATRAP-821) 2006
context_page_description: Basic fighter maneuvers are tactical movements performed by fighter aircraft during air combat maneuvering, to gain a positional advantage over the opponent. BFM combines the fundamentals of aerodynamic flight and the geometry of pursuit, with the physics of managing the aircraft's energy-to-weight ratio, called its specific energy.
  Maneuvers are used to gain a better angular position in relation to the opponent. They can be offensive, to help an attacker get behind an enemy; or defensive, to help the defender evade an attacker's air-to-air weapons. They can also be neutral, where both opponents strive for an offensive position or disengagement maneuvers, to help an escape.
  Classic maneuvers include the lag pursuit or yo-yo, which add distance when the attacker may overshoot the target due to higher airspeed, the low yo-yo, which does the opposite when the attacker is flying too slow, the scissors, which attempts to drive the attacker in front of the defender, and the defensive spiral, which allows a defender to disengage from an attacker.
context_section_description: Successful BFM requires geometry as much as it does skill and stamina. Pilots must know their aircraft's corner speed, as well as optimum angles of bank (AOB) and angles of attack (AOA), without consciously thinking about them. At the same time, pilots must remain conscious of the angle between the opponent's velocity vector and their own, called the track crossing angle (TCA), which is important when aligning or avoiding a firing solution. Most importantly, the pilot must remain aware of the angle off tail (AOT), which is the angle between flight paths. A high AOT causes a high rate of closure, but makes achieving a suitable guns solution nearly impossible. Acquiring a low AOT (getting on an enemy's tail), can decrease or even reverse closure rate, and is usually the primary goal before an overshoot occurs. However, an uncooperative defender may try to take advantage of the high closure rate by turning to increase AOT, forcing an overshoot.
  The AOT is often estimated by the position of the attacking aircraft's nose in relation to the defender. AOT are generally grouped into three categories, called "pursuit curves". "Lead pursuit" occurs when the nose of the attacker points ahead of the defender, while "pure pursuit" happens when the attacker's nose points directly at the defender. If the attacker's nose points behind the defender, the condition is known as "lag pursuit".
caption: Pursuit curves.
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