For the benefit of the others somthing about the ‘Barrall Roll Attack”. A figure will show, that the corner speed of the MiG-21 is much lower than that of the F-4 and does allow a smaller turn-radius by that. To make us of that, you are in the defensive, because you energy-state is lower than that of your faster opponent.
The deeper sense for the defender is to force an overshoot by the faster attacker and reverse the situation by that. It does work fine, when your opponent is surprised by that. The Barrel Roll Attack prevents an overshoot by using a three dimensional manouvre to change the angle off and stay in the tail-cone of your opponent. The higher energy state of the F-4 allows to counter the advantage of the MiG-21 in a turning-contest by by the clever use of vertical manouver to square corners.
To cut it short, such graphs may just give an idea what manouver will be an option, when the pilot reports give an idea about the real behavior of the very fighter, when doing so. The MiG-21 is very stable at lower speeds, but it ……
Good grief!!
Sens…it’s a shame you never were a fighter pilot, because if you had been, you wouldn’t be making silly posts like this.
Just in case any of those folks you mentioned are still reading this, here are some additional things about the Barrel Roll Attack.
The maneuver has nothing to do with turn performance other than it is used when the attacker cannot equal the turn radius required by the excessive aspect angle and initial nose position of the attacker. Corner velocity is irrelevant. Instantaneous turn rate is irrelevant. Type of aircraft is irrelevant. Relative speeds are irrelevant.
It is a relatively long range maneuver whose purpose is to reduce aspect angle, and in doing so angle off. One of the better stories of this maneuver involves one of the MiG kills credited to Robin Olds during the Vietnam War. The noted aviation artist, Keith Ferris, has done an excellent and correct painting of this Barrel Roll Attack.
Another interesting thing about the maneuver is that it relies on the target not responding to the attack. The most common reason for this is that the target doesn’t see the attacker. The attack is relatively easy to defend against, and it is assumed that the failure for the target to do so is that lack of a tally on the attacker. That or the target is clueless. Take your pick.
The Barrel Roll Attack is one of a number of maneuvers generally classed as ‘rolling maneuvers’. Other offensive forms of this include the Lag Roll and the Vector Roll. Each is designed to solve different positional problems…basically fuselage alignment problems (Barrel Roll), range issues (Lag Roll), and closure issues (Vector Roll).
The Barrel Roll Attack is used in high aspect and angle off situations where the attacker wants to avoid a flight path overshoot. This sounds much like the conditions where the High Yo-Yo would be a good option, but because of the longer ranges involved, a yo-yo would be ineffective in handling the high aspect situation.
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