Air Force

"In the early 1950s, then-Lieutenant John Boyd noticed, as did many others, that although the best Russian fighter of the Korean War, the MiG-15, was roughly equal to his F-86 (and in some ways was even better), Americans won ten air battles for every one they lost. Sure, part of this was better training, but even when we got our hands on MiGs later on, and flew them with our own pilots, the F-86 still won more than it should. Many years later, Boyd tried using his “energy maneuverability” concept to explain why the F-86 was able to compile such a lopsided record. Energy maneuverability (EM) is a mathematical technique for telling under what conditions one fighter will be able to turn tighter or accelerate faster than another. Since experience had shown that the fighter that could turn or accelerate better usually gained a decisive advantage, EM had become the official fighter doctrine of the Air Force. Even EM, though, could not explain the F-86’s advantage because the MiG’s numbers were at least as good at many altitude and airspeed combinations and at some altitudes and at certain airspeeds, better. The secret turned out to be that the F-86 had a bubble canopy, allowing its pilot much better observation of the fight, and full power hydraulic controls, which is like power steering for fighters. Although the MiG could, in certain circumstances, turn tighter than the F-86, its heavier controls meant that by the time the MiG pilot had his airplane doing one thing, the F-86 was already doing something else. The MiG’s theoretically higher EM performance rarely led to wins in actual or even in practice air-to-air combat.67 This caused Boyd a lot of problems, since his reputation in the Air Force as a whole rested on his EM"

"“If you don’t know where you’re going,” runs a saying I first heard in the Air Force, “any road will take you there.” In a competitive environment, not knowing where you’re going may well lead you to some place you didn’t want to be. Your ultimate purpose is to survive in a threatening and confusing world. But survival per se will hardly arouse the passion and commitment you need to win. Prisoners survive. Hostages survive. Your goal is to survive on your own terms, or, echoing Faulkner, to prevail, however you define the term."