Ubiquity of the "victory roll"?
 

I wanted to throw this out there. How common was the victory roll? I first saw it as a young child watching The Battle of Britain and they made a fairly big deal out of it considering it's two appearances in the film.

But here's my question... was it something that was popular and spread? Did German pilots perform them? Russian? What about in the Pacific?

Anyone know?

I think the Germans tended to 'waggle their wings' whereas the RAF used the roll.

My suspicions is that it this type of activity was generally considered poor form, especially in the RAF where no attempt was made to depict the air war as some kind of blood sport. I also suspect that rolling and waggling was probably regarded as being a bit immature by those guys who actually had a few hours in, and had a more sober view of their future prospects.

When you consider the number of aircrew that wouldn't return from an operation at all and those that did in a distressing state, all shot up or burnt, watching some wanker doing a victory roll over the field would probably go down like a cup of cold sick in many cases.

Some pilots did do "stunting" and a few paid dearly for it. One incident comes to mind where a P-38 pilot attempted a loop at low altitude and impacted the airfield on the way down. In general however, it's probably a bit "Hollywood".

I wondered if it was maybe a bit Hollywood. I know a few pilots are on record as having done it but I wondered just how much.

I remember watching a history type channel that a Japanese fighter ace in a Zero performed an aerobatic display over an American airforce base that they had attacked.

Polish pilots from the 303rd did it during the Battle of Britain.

Saburo Sakai is the one who performed the aerobatic display with his wingman over Port Moresby.


Wheels

Interesting! Now I know Japanese fighter outfits tended to count kills as a group and rarely displayed personal kill markings. How was a victory roll or victory aerobatic display viewed in Japanese fighter pilot culture?

i remember reading a interview wit ha russian pilot who said that in his squad it was common to do a little show off for the ground when returning from a sucessfull mission, a barrel roll, a low alt pass over the field something like that.

he also said that it was prohibited after one pilot tried something in the likes of a loop and crashed.

Don Gentile pranged his mustang on his last flight, tore shangrila all up.

It is more suited to do it after you finished your last mission in the war.:cool:
Bringing home the ultimate war victor spoil: your life :) .

Officially the 'Victory roll' was frowned upon in the RAF because of the very real possibility of a loss of control. A victory or aileron roll carried out at high speed and low level, is inherently dangerous because the wings lose lift until, by the time they are vertical, the only thing keeping the aircraft flying is a small amount of lift from the fuselage and momentum. In the meantime the aircraft is losing height while the nose is well below the horizontal plane meaning the pilot has to pull the stick back at the same time as he is completing the roll. It can look great but in the hands of a hyped-up, possibly tired, possibly inexperienced pilot it could also lead to a hole in the ground.

Secondly there was the possibility of combat damage to the aircraft, such as damage to the control lines, which could lead to a crash.

So, while there was also a feeling that victory rolls were too showy, there were practical reasons for the RAF and other air forces dissuading their pilots from carrying them out.

There's also the fact that fooling around with celebratory acrobatics wastes fuel and time, both of which were often in short supply.

If the mission required confirmation of contact with the enemy or destruction of the target, I believe that the approved methods were to waggle the wings, send a coded message or drop a flare or message drogue.

Of course, I think that pilots of just about every air force occasionally indulged in some sort of "victory dance," either as catharsis or as actual celebration. After all, the pilots were little more than teenagers, they were flying the fastest, sexiest machines on the planet, and boys will be boys.

from Osprey Aviation on the FW190A3 that landed in England

:grin: