America’s “Ace of Aces”

When Wilbur and Orville Wright successfully demonstrated the first machine capable of self-sustained flight on that windy Kitty Hawk day over 100 years ago they could hardly imagined how the result of their tinkerings would change the world. The radical changes brought about by powered flight also included dramatic modifications in mankind’s age old preoccupation with war.

In four major wars since the proving grounds of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina some 60,000 American pilots have flown wartime missions, of these only around 1,400 have achieved the title of “Ace”. To become designated as such a pilot must have at least 5 confirmed enemy kills of opposing aircraft. Originally referred to as “dogfights” due to the propensity of the earliest fliers to circle one another seeking an advantage, much as canines do when challenged by another dog, as times have changed so has the terminology of aerial combat. Now we refer to close-range duels between opposing “Knights of the Sky” as air-to-air combat but the goal remains the same, gain a decisive advantage and destroy the enemy plane.

In World War I clearly the most famous and proficient American Ace was Eddie Rickenbacker who after recording his first “kill” on April 29, 1918 ended the war with a total of 26 confirmed enemy aircraft shot down. While the press dubbed him America’s “Ace of Aces” at the end of the war, his well deserved Medal of Honor was not awarded until 1930. Rickenbacker lived to see his record eclipsed in World War II but never lost the respect, love, and admiration of both the public and his comrades in the sky for his daring and death-defying exploits at a time when techniques for using air power to advantage in wartime were still being developed.