Energy is life for a fighter pilot in the heat of combat against another warplane, and in a dogfight, altitude is potential energy. In modern air combat, altitude is like a battery: the more you have, the more options you have to win. Jets like Sukhoi’s Su-27 Flanker can rocket to 50,000 feet in just over a minute, while the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor can spin in a climb to engage its enemy from the stratosphere.
These aircraft can all fly at twice the speed of sound or more, and some can even avoid radar thanks to fifth-generation stealth technology. However, in many ways, speed-to-altitude and vertical energy are the ultimate measures of an aircraft’s freedom of movement and, therefore, lethality in the…
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