raditional dogfight was pretty much dead as it was cheaper & easier to fire various missiles at your opponents
I remember a sci-fi short story called "A hawk among the pidgeons". The basic plot was that a modern (for the 1980s) fighter[1] somehow gets thrown back through time to WW1.
"Aha!" thinks the pilot - at a stroke I will kill the German biplanes - how hard can it be?
The answer is - very hard. Not enough metal or heat for the missiles to lock onto and the speed difference is just too great for the gun to be useful. The most he can do is try and tear them apart with his slipstream and even that doesn't work.
Just as he's about out of fuel, the time-rift opens again and he's back in his time.
[1] And F104 Starfighter if I remember correctly. Surprised that the pilot survived..
Biting the hand that feeds IT
