Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Answer. The Answer

During the past couple of weeks I have read three books on flying.
Rudel (1916-1982) is a German pilot who flew in World War II. He wrote 'Stuka Pilot' after the War, in 1949, about his experiences. Lovely read. I have written about him before: here (follow link to blogpost). He was the most highly decorated German serviceman. He escaped getting killed dozens of times in battle. Göring and Hitler asked him both a couple of times to stop flying but he disobeyed their orders.

Hammond writes more in detail about John Boyd. I wrote a blogpost on him before a couple of weeks ago: here. Did not read something new in Hammond's book. Three interesting points.
Quote (page 184-5): "Nuances, analogies, and metaphors produce new concepts. They are there, it's just that they are prisoners of other concepts, and you need to liberate them. It's a sort of guerrilla warfare of the mind."
Quote (page 191): "OODA loops are the answer. From that process come the possibilities for success, failure, life, and death. Coming to grips with these opportunities or threaths faster than others gives us greater advantage still. A failure to recognize these truths will mean we fail to survive or prosper."
A Boyd riddle (page 181): What are these pictures? They are all the same thing. How?

Mike Shaw is a former Harrier pilot who writes with great detail about a "normal" day flying a Harrier. Lots of lovely pictures. Why do fighters usually fly in pairs when you see some in the sky? Because they are training their battle formation:

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