Flying ace A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat . The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an " ace " has varied , but is usually considered to be five or more . The few aces among combat pilots have historically accounted for the majority of air - to - air victories in military history . History . World War I . World War I introduced the systematic use of true single - seat fighter aircraft , with enough speed and agility to catch and maintain contact with targets in the air , coupled with armament sufficiently powerful to destroy the targets . Aerial combat became a prominent feature with the Fokker Scourge , in the last half of 1915 . This was also the beginning of a long standing trend in warfare , showing statistically that approximately five percent of combat pilots account for the majority of air - to - air victories . Use of the term “ ace ” to describe these pilots began in World War I , when French newspapers described Adolphe Pégoud , as " l ' as " ( French for " Ace " ) after he became the first pilot to down five German aircraft . The British initially used the term “ star - turns ” ( a show business term ) , while the Germans described their elite fighter pilots as " Überkanonen " ( which roughly translates to “ top gun ” ) . The successes of such German ace pilots as Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke were much publicised for the benefit of civilian morale , and the " Pour le Mérite " , Germany ’ s highest award for gallantry , became part of the uniform of a leading German ace . In the " Luftstreitkräfte " the " Pour le Mérite " was nicknamed Der blaue Max / The Blue Max , after Max Immelmann , who was the first fighter pilot to receive this award . Initially , German aviators had to destroy eight Allied aircraft to receive this medal . As the war progressed , the qualifications for " Pour le Mérite " were raised , but successful German fighter pilots continued to be hailed as national heroes for the remainder of the war , As the German fighter squadrons usually fought well within German lines , it was practicable to establish and maintain very strict guidelines for the official recognition of victory claims by German pilots . “ Shared ” victories were either credited to one of the pilots concerned , or to the unit as a whole – the destruction of the aircraft had to be physically confirmed by locating its wreckage , or an independent witness to the destruction had to be found . Victories were also counted for aircraft “ forced down ” within German lines , as this usually resulted in the death or capture of the enemy aircrew . British and Commonwealth fighter pilots fought mostly in German held airspace and were often not in a position to confirm that an apparently destroyed enemy aircraft had in fact crashed , so these victories were frequently claimed as " driven down " , " forced to land " , or " out of control " ( called " probables " in later wars ) . These victories were usually included in a pilot ' s totals and in citations for decorations . The British high command considered praise of fighter pilots to be detrimental to equally brave bomber and reconnaissance aircrew – so that the British air services did not publish official statistics on the successes of individuals . Nonetheless some pilots did become famous through press coverage , making the British system for the recognition of successful fighter pilots much more informal and somewhat inconsistent . One pilot , Arthur Gould Lee , described his own score in a letter to his wife as " Eleven , five by me solo — the rest shared " , adding that he was " miles from being an ace " . This shows that his No . 46 Squadron RAF counted shared kills , but separately from " solo " ones — one of a number of factors that seems to have varied from unit to unit . Also evident is that a considerably higher figure than five kills was considered as the requisite total for " ace " status , at least in Sqd No . 46 . Other Allied countries , such as France and Italy , fell somewhere in between the very strict German approach and the relatively casual British one . They usually demanded independent witnessing of the actual destruction of an aircraft , making confirmation of victories scored in enemy territory very difficult . The Belgian crediting system sometimes included " out of control " to be counted as a victory . The United States Army Air Service adopted French standards for evaluating victories , with two exceptions – during the summer of 1918 , while flying under operational control of the British , the 17th Aero Squadron and the 148th Aero Squadron used British standards . American newsmen , in their correspondence to their papers , decided that five victories were the minimum needed to become an ace . While " ace " status was generally won only by fighter pilots , bomber and reconnaissance crews on both sides also destroyed some enemy aircraft , typically in defending themselves from attack . A prime example is John Stevenson Stubbs , an Airco DH . 9 bomber pilot credited with 11 aerial victories , including one over a German observation balloon . Another RAF Airco DH . 9 pilot , Bermudian Lieutenant Arthur Rowe Spurling of 49 Squadron , with his observer , Sergeant Frank Bell , single - handedly attacked thirty Fokker D . VII fighters , downing five of them ( see Ace in a Day , below ) . Two days later they shot down another D . VII . Between the world wars . There were two theaters of war that produced flying aces between the two world wars . They were the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino - Japanese War . Part of the outside intervention in the Spanish Civil War was the supply of " volunteer " foreign pilots to both sides . Russian and American aces joined the Republican air force , while the Nationalists included Germans and Italians . The Soviet Volunteer Group began operations in the Second Sino - Japanese War as early as 2 December 1937 , resulting in 28 Soviet aces . The Flying Tigers were American military pilots recruited sub rosa to aid the Chinese Nationalists . They spent the summer and autumn of 1941 in transit to China , and did not begin flying combat missions until 20 December 1941 . World War II . In World War II many air forces adopted the British practice of crediting fractional shares of aerial victories , resulting in fractions or decimal scores , such as 11½ or 26 . 83 . Some U . S . commands also credited aircraft destroyed on the ground as equal to aerial victories . The Soviets distinguished between solo and group kills , as did the Japanese , though the Imperial Japanese Navy stopped crediting individual victories ( in favor of squadron tallies ) in 1943 . The Soviet Air Forces claimed the only female aces of the war : Lydia Litvyak scored 12 victories and Yekaterina Budanova achieved 11 . Fighting on different sides , the French pilot Pierre Le Gloan had the unusual distinction of shooting down four German , seven Italian and seven British planes , the latter while he was flying for Vichy France in Syria . The Luftwaffe continued the tradition of " one pilot , one kill " , and now referred to top scorers as " Experten " . During the war , and for some years after , the very high victory totals of some " experten " were considered to be coloured by grandiose Nazi propaganda . A number of factors probably contributed to the very high totals of the top German aces . For a limited period ( especially during Operation Barbarossa ) , many Axis kills were over obsolescent aircraft and either poorly trained or inexperienced Allied pilots . In addition , Luftwaffe pilots generally flew many more individual sortie s ( sometimes well over 1000 ) than their Allied counterparts . Moreover , they often returned to the cockpit until they were captured , incapacitated or killed , while successful Allied pilots were usually either promoted to positions involving less combat flying or routinely rotated back to training bases to pass their valuable combat knowledge to younger pilots . Similarly , in the Pacific theater , one factor leading to the superiority of Japanese aces such as the legendary Hiroyoshi Nishizawa ( about 87 kills ) could be the early technical dominance of the Mitsubishi A6M " Zero " fighter . Post World War II aces . The Korean War . The Korean War of 1950 – 53 marked the transition from piston - engine d propeller driven aircraft to more modern jet aircraft . As such , it saw the world ' s first jet - vs - jet aces . Indo - Pakistani Wars . Squadron Leader Muhammad Mahmood Alam of the Pakistan Air Force emerged from 1965 War as Pakistan ' s top scoring fighter Ace . During the Indo - Pakistani War of 1965 , Muhammad Mahmood Alam was credited with nine aerial victories and two probable victories . The Vietnam War . The North Vietnamese air force was the world ’ s sixth largest air force at the height of its power in 1974 but armed with mostly obsolete aircraft . This allowed many North Vietnamese pilots to claim " ace " status . American air - to - air combat during the Vietnam War generally matched intruding United States fighter - bomber s against the radar - directed integrated North Vietnamese air defense systems . American F - 4 , F - 8 , and F - 105 fighter crews usually had to contend with both surface - to - air missiles and anti - aircraft artillery and machine gun fire before opposing fighters attacked them . The long - running conflict produced 22 aces : 17 North Vietnamese pilots , two American pilots , three American Weapons Systems Officers or WSOs . The Middle East conflicts . The series of wars and conflicts between Israel and its neighbors began with Israeli independence in 1948 and continued for over three decades . Of the 50 known aces during these battles , one was Egyptian , three Syrian , and the rest Israeli . Iran - Iraq war . Brig . General Jalil Zandi ( 1951 – 2001 ) was an ace fighter pilot in the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force , serving for the full duration of the Iran - Iraq War . His record of 8 confirmed and 3 probable victories against Iraqi combat airplanes qualifies him as an ace and the most successful pilot of that conflict and the most successful F - 14 pilot worldwide . Afghanistan invasion ( 2001 - ) . There are no known aces ( in terms of air - air combat fight with at least five downed foe planes / airships ) of the Afghanistan war and the ongoing 21st century conflicts . It is actually more likely that flying aces won ' t occur due to technological changes . This is due to the fact that the traditional fighter - versus - fighter dogfight is extremely rare in contemporary warfare , as unmanned aircraft and other computerized technology , including anti - aircraft missiles , have taken a prominent seat in contemporary aviation warfare . Accuracy . Realistic assessment of enemy casualties is important for intelligence purposes , so most air forces expend considerable effort to ensure accuracy in victory claims . In World War II , the aircraft gun camera came into general usage , partly in hope of alleviating inaccurate victory claims . And yet , to quote an extreme example , in the Korean War , both the U . S . and Communist air arms claimed a 10 to 1 victory - loss ratio . Without delving too deeply into these claims , they are obviously mutually incompatible . Arguably , few recognized aces actually shot down as many aircraft as credited to them . The primary reason for inaccurate victory claims is the inherent confusion of three - dimensional , high speed combat between large numbers of aircraft , but competitiveness and the desire for recognition ( not to mention optimistic enthusiasm ) also figure in certain inflated , especially when the attainment of a specific total is required for a particular decoration or promotion . The most accurate figures usually belong to the air arm fighting over its own territory , where many wrecks can be located , and even identified , and where shot down enemy are either killed or captured . It is for this reason that at least 76 of the 80 planes credited to Manfred von Richthofen can be tied to known British losses — the German Jagdstaffeln flew defensively , on their own side of the lines , in part due to General Hugh Trenchard ' s policy of offensive patrol . On the other hand , losses ( especially in aircraft as opposed to personnel ) are sometimes recorded inaccurately , for various reasons . Nearly 50 % of RAF victories in the Battle of Britain , for instance , do not tally statistically with recorded German losses — but some at least of this apparent over - claiming can be tallied with known wrecks , and aircrew known to have been in British PoW camps . There are a number of reasons why reported losses may be understated – including poor reporting procedures and loss of records due to enemy action or wartime confusion . Non - pilot aces . While aces are generally thought of exclusively as fighter pilots , some have accorded this status to gunners on bombers or reconnaissance aircraft , and observers / gunners in two - seater fighters such as the Bristol F . 2b . Because pilots often teamed with different air crew members , an observer or gunner might have been an ace while his pilot was not , or vice versa . Observer aces constitute a sizable minority in many lists . Charles George Gass , who tallied 39 victories , was the highest scoring observer ace in World War I . In World War 2 , United States Army Air Forces B - 17 tail gunner S / Sgt . Michael Arooth ( 379th Bomb Group ) was credited with 17 victories . Royal Air Force Flight Sergeant FJ Barker scored 13 victories while flying as a gunner in a Boulton Paul Defiant turret fighter , piloted by Flight Sergeant ER Thorne . With the advent of more advanced technology , a third category of ace appeared . Charles B . DeBellevue became not only the first U . S . Air Force Weapon Systems Officer ( WSO ) to become an ace , but also the top American ace of the Vietnam War , with six victories . Close behind with five were fellow WSO Jeffrey Feinstein and Radar Intercept Officer William P . Driscoll . Ace in a day . The first military aviators to score five or more victories on the same date , thus each becoming an " ace in a day " , were pilot Julius Arigi and observer / gunner Johann Lasi of the Austro - Hungarian air force , on 22 August 1916 , when they downed five Italian planes . The feat was repeated five more times during World War I . On 23 August 1918 , an RAF Airco DH . 9 bomber flown by Bermudian Lieutenant Arthur Rowe Spurling of 49 Squadron , with his observer , Sergeant Frank Bell , single - handedly attacked thirty Fokker D . VII fighters , downing five of them ( three by Spurling , two by Bell ) . Two days later Spurling shot down another D . VII over Mont Notre Dame . The two crewmen shared each other ' s victories , each attaining ace status . Becoming an ace in a day became relatively common during World War II ; for instance , 68 U . S . pilots — 43 Army Air Forces , 18 Navy , and seven Marine Corps — were credited with the feat . In the Soviet offensive of 1944 in the Karelian Isthmus , Finnish pilot Hans Wind shot down 30 enemy airplanes in 12 days and in doing so obtained " ace in a day " status three times . On 6 September 1965 , during the Indo - Pakistani War of 1965 , Muhammad Mahmood Alam of the Pakistan Air Force shot down five Indian Air Force Hawker Hunter Mk . 56 fighters in less than a minute , four of them within 30 seconds . He was awarded the Sitara - e - Jurat ( " The star of courage " ) and bar for his actions .