Libyan ace Al-Obedi killed in Benghazi

[Oberon]

https://www.libyaherald.com/2016/07/...s-in-benghazi/

Major Idris Hamed Al-Obedi was killed this morning when his MiG-23 crashed into the ground in Benghazis Ganfouda district shortly after he had completed a bombing mission. It is unknown whether he was shot down or whether a technical or pilot error was to blame.
Al-Obedi was one of Libyas most accomplished pilots, having begun flying in 1984 and logged thousands of hours in a multitude of aircraft.
In the west he became noticed for his aerobatic skills and in particular his low fly bys which made their way onto social media and the web.



RIP Major Al-Obedi.

[Sailor Steve]

Sad loss, but I do have one complaint against the reporting, and that is the use of the word "ace". There is only one circumstance for that term to be used for a pilot, and that is when he has shot down five or more of his enemies. This is not meant to slight Major Al-Obedi, who by all reports was a great pilot, but did he fulfill the requirement for that term?

It's like when reporters call a destroyer a "battleship". It happens a lot, but it doesn't make it so.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Sad loss, but I do have one complaint against the reporting, and that is the use of the word "ace". There is only one circumstance for that term to be used for a pilot, and that is when he has shot down five or more of his enemies. This is not meant to slight Major Al-Obedi, who by all reports was a great pilot, but did he fulfill the requirement for that term?

It's like when reporters call a destroyer a "battleship". It happens a lot, but it doesn't make it so.

Good point, fair point too. Do ground targets count towards attaining ace status though? And, whilst I was doing a quick bit of research into the definition of an ace, wikipedia made a fair point, how many more Aces will there been in future wars? Since fighter vs fighter combat is becoming less frequent in modern warfare and unmanned aircraft are becoming more common, we could be looking at the end of the era of Aces.

[Jimbuna]

Blue Skies

[Commander Wallace]

From the images, it appears to be a MiG-23 as you mentioned. Wilkipedia suggests the MiG-23 was a fighter / interceptor/ and attack bomber or strike aircraft.

" quote "


Operational history

Western sources, generally attribute a very limited number of confirmed air-to-air victories to the MiG-23 while reporting a higher number of MiG-23s downed mostly by Israeli Air Force in 1982, while Russian sources generally decrease the number of losses and increase the number of inflicted kills bringing the air-to-air kill to loss ratio to around parity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-23


Wilkipedia also suggests that a pilot with 5 or more " kills " is sufficient for attaining the status of " ace "


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_ace


This is not meant to be a denigration of his flying abilities.



A better example of an ace might have been German pilot Erich Hartmann who is the top ace of all time with 352 kills.

The Soviet Air Forces has the first Allied pilots in terms of aerial victories, Ivan Kozhedub credited with 66 victories and Alexander Pokryshkin scored 65 victories. It also claimed the only female aces of the war: Lydia Litvyak scored 12 victories and Yekaterina Budanova achieved 11 Fighting on different sides, the French pilot Pierre Le Gloan had the unusual distinction of shooting down four German, seven Italian and seven British aircraft, the latter while he was flying for Vichy France in Syria.


American Pilot Col. Robin Olds is yet another example. (July 14, 1922 – June 14, 2007) was an American fighter pilot and general officer in the U.S. Air Force. He was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 16 victories in World War II and the Vietnam War He retired in 1973 as a brigadier general.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Olds


There are many more examples of pilots who have attained " Ace " status

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

From the images, it appears to be a MiG-23 as you mentioned. Wilkipedia suggests the MiG-23 was a fighter / interceptor/ and attack bomber or strike aircraft.

Could also be a 27 which is the ground attack version of the 23.