Tag: fighter pilot

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Dozen Interesting Military Quotes

 

1
Know and use all the capabilities in your airplane. If you don’t, sooner or later, some guy who does use them all will kick your ass.

Dave “Preacher” Pace
Quoted in Robert L . Shaw, Fighter Combat

 

2
As one veteran Israeli pilot said after the June 1982 air campaign over Lebanon in response to American questions about how much doctrine the Israeli Air Force had written down, “Yes, we have books. But they are very thin.”

Barry D. Watts and James 0. Hale
Air University Review, 1984

 

3
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

Sir Winston Churchill

 

4
A modern, autonomous, and thoroughly trained Air Force in being at all times will not alone be sufficient, but without it there can be no national security.

Gen H. H. “Hap” Arnold

 

5
War is not an affair of chance. A great deal of knowledge, study, and meditation is necessary to conduct it well.

Frederick the Great

 

6
A wise man learns from his experience; a wiser man learns from the experience of others.

Confucius

 

7
Every soldier generally thinks only as far as the radius of action of his branch of the service and only as quickly as he can move with his weapons.

Luftwaffe general Karl Koller

 

8
Strategic air assault is wasted if it is dissipated piecemeal in sporadic attacks between which the enemy has an opportunity to readjust defenses or recuperate.

Hap Arnold

 

9
The science of war (knowledge).
The art of war (application of knowledge).

Wallace P. Franz and Harry G. Summers

Art of War Colloquium, textbook Army War College

 

10
Space in which to maneuver in the air, unlike fighting on land or sea, is practically unlimited.

Group Captain J. E “Johnnie” Johnson

 

11
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Napoléon

12
Tactics are concerned with doing the job “right,” higher levels of strategy are concerned with doing the “right” job.

Dennis M. Drew and Donald M. Snow

 

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My Tryst with HT-2 Aircraft: The Day God Flew With Me

 My previous story titled “The day I flew my dad’s Car” started with the sentence “It was the year of the lord……..” Well this one is also form the same year of the lord. It seems that 1979 was a very eventful year. It was eventful indeed, as this was the year when I started flying (or rather started learning how to fly), this was the year I earned my Wings and also got commissioned in the Indian Air Force. These events changed my life, making the next forty years most enjoyable ones.

 

 

This story is about my tryst with the HT-2 aircraft (I always lovingly called it Dalda Tin aircraft). Well that was the first impression one got on seeing it. But looks can be deceptive and in this case it was true. HT – 2 (Hindustan Trainer – 2) was one lean mean flying machine. This machine had deflated the ego of many an ace pilots by rubbing their nose into the dirt or by giving them a swinging  time (literally). HT-2 was a very simple machine with mechanical controls but a complex one to control. The machine seemed to have a mind of its own and reminded one of bronc riding rodeo. It is said that if one can drive on Indian roads, he or she can drive anywhere in the world. Similar thing can be said about HT-2, if you can fly the HT-2, you can fly any aircraft in the world.

Continue reading “My Tryst with HT-2 Aircraft: The Day God Flew With Me”

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Basics of Airpower Application

It is always good to remember the basics at all the times.

With the ongoing debate about proposed organisational changes, it will be worthwhile revisiting the basics related to application of airpower.

Effective airpower application requires a unique perspective. This perspective has been formed through a century of air operations experience.

Following quotes, principles, guidelines and tenets are part of  doctrinal publications of the air Forces world over.

 

Air warfare cannot be separated into little packets; it knows no boundaries on land and sea other than those imposed by the radius of action of the aircraft; it is a unity and demands unity of command.

 

-Air Marshal Arthur Tedder

 

 

The other Services have air arms—magnificent air arms—but their air arms must fit within their Services, each with a fundamentally different focus. So those air arms, when in competition with the primary focus of their Services, will often end up on the short end, where the priorities for resources may lead to shortfalls or decisions that are suboptimum. It is therefore important to understand that the core competencies of [airpower] are optional for the other Services. They can elect to play or not play in that arena. But if the nation is to remain capable and competent in air and space [sic], someone must pay attention across the whole spectrum; that is why there is an Air Force.

-General Ronald R. Fogleman,

15th Chief of Staff, USAF

 

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