Fast Jet Performance

It was a blinding flash of sunlight that forced my eyes to squint into the distance and my heart-rate to soar - but it was no good…   I’d lost her.   The dim outline of a fighter jet, that I’d been pointing at head-on just a couple of seconds ago, was now gone.   It’s the biggest fear of any pilot, losing sight of the aircraft you are about to fight - you can’t fight what you can’t see.   The temptation was to frantically search the sky in the hope she’d reappear but I knew it was futile.   ‘Ninja Two - confirm ‘tally’?’ I called, checking that my student could see me.   ‘Negative,’ came the reply.   I checked my instruments - 0.76 Mach - I knew she’d be the same and that meant a closing speed of over 1,000 miles per hour - fifteen miles per minute. One mile every four seconds. We’d only been five miles apart when we’d turned to face each other so quick maths told me that I only had two and a half, maybe three seconds before we’d collide. And, in the world of military flying training, an instructor killing