To execute a Stall Turn, the aircraft must start in level flight and nose up to a vertical flight path until it comes to a stop. At which point the model aircraft yaws through 180 degrees, then dives and finally recovers straight and level on a flight path in the opposite direction to the entry. Entry and exit should be at the same height. Low powered aircraft types would be expected to execute a shallow dive at full throttle in order to pick up the necessary speed before commencing the maneuver. The Stall Turn will allow players to regain the offensive position.

The Herbst Maneuver (J-Turn)

The Herbst Maneuver, Herbst Reversal, or simply J-Turn, is another classic post-stall maneuver. The goal of the maneuver is to quite simply reverse the aircraft’s heading angle and to complete the reversal at the same point and velocity that the maneuver was started from. The maneuver typically resembles the one illustrated; the aircraft pitches to a high AOA to stop the forward component of its velocity, puts in rudder at the top of the climb to point the aircraft down, and then dives to regain speed as it returns to the starting point, enabling a rapid direction change.

The Cobra

The Cobra is yet another post-stall maneuver. The two primary characteristics of this maneuver are 1) a rapid pitch-up to near 90 degrees AOA and 2) a rapid decrease in velocity by 50-75%. (The latter is due to the fact that the aircraft is flying through the air on its tail when at 90 degrees AOA, and therefore is incurring a huge drag penalty.) The maneuver also results in an increase in altitude due to the lift generated at AOA values greater than zero.

The Kulbit

An aircraft could shoot an opponent directly behind them by extending the Cobra past 90 degrees to a full 180 degrees. The aircraft actually pitches all the way from 0 to 360 degrees AOA while flying in a nearly straight line, except for the altitude increase as before with the Cobra. This allows for ideal missile shot positioning.

These are only a handfull of the maneuvers players will be able to execute in Tom Clancy’s HAWX. Though they may sound complicated, Tom Clancy’s games have always had very in depth tutorials and HAWX should be no exception. If you want to check out more exteme maneuvers head over to the HAXW Blog and keep it locked here where we’ll be up to date with all the latest news on this bird before it drops.