Dogfights

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Dogfights was an American documentary series that aired on the History Channel from 2006-2008 that covered Ace Pilots from World War I to the present and future.

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Tropes used in Dogfights include:

• Ace Pilot: Most of the pilots featured on this show.
• America Wins the War
• Badass Israeli / Israelis With Infrared Missiles: The pilots featured in the episodes "Dogfights of the Middle East" and "Desert Aces".
• Cool Plane: Quite a few. Some of the rarer/newer ones include the Me-262 jet from World War II, the B-17 Old 666 in "Long Odds," and pretty much all of the planes in "Dogfights of the Future".
• Conservation of Ninjitsu: In some dogfights, being outnumbered actually is an advantage.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: A number of episodes focus on these, including but not limited to "Long Odds" and "Death Of The Japanese Navy".
  • Werner Voss' final dogfight in "The First Dogfighters".
  • The Tuskegee Airmen fighting jet fighters with propeller planes and winning.
• Determinator: In the episode "Long Odds," there was a pilot of a lone, slow divebomber who was trapped by two Japanese fighter planes and had to maneuver with them for about 20 minutes, sometimes undergoing turns up to 9G. Also, in the episode "Thunderbolt," one plane was shot so badly that it went into a spin and caught fire. The pilot, whose eyes had been burned by oil, was able to stop the spin and fly back to base. On his way back, a German pilot emptied all of his ammunition on the plane and it kept flying. In fact, the list goes on and on...
• Eagle Land: A common criticism of the series is that it was Ameri-centric, as almost all of the episodes were about American pilots.
  • Also an example of Did Not Do the Research, as there are many episodes that focus on/feature non-American pilots, including Japanese, Israeli, German, British, and more. ^[context?]
  • The episode "Hunt for the Bismarck" solely features the British, and the first two episodes of season 2 are centered on the Japanese and Germans respectively.
• Flies Like Crazy: A North Korean pilot in "MiG Alley," who performed several extreme maneuvers to escape an F-86 pilot.
• Frickin' Laser Beams: The episode "Dogfights of the Future" actually gives a rare realistic representation of how actual laser weapons work and how they would realistically implemented in the future.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: In the episode "Guadalcanal," one pilot got his wristwatch shot off by a bullet from a Japanese plane.
• Macross Missile Massacre: The B-1R bombers in "Dogfights of the Future" were shown being capable of firing volleys of missiles that could wipe out almost an entire squadron of enemy fighters.
• Number of the Beast: In "Long Odds," one of the stories is about a World War II B-17 that is about to be scrapped, as it gets blown away every time it goes on a mission, so a crew decides to take it and beef it up. The tail number? 666. Ironically, all but one of the crew survives a massive attack by over 20 Japanese fighter planes.
• Spent Shells Shower: In an episode featuring the F4 Phantom in Vietnam, the center-mounted cannon is seen spitting a flickering muzzle blast and dumping spent brass all over the jungle.
• Suicide Attack: A few. Though most are by the Japanese, some German pilots actually did this to Allied bombers, although they would attempt to jump from their plane before the collision.
• Super-Detailed Fight Narration
• Twenty Minutes Into the Future: "Dogfights of the Future".