At first, I thought this was just another easy read about aerial fighting in World War I, but I quickly came to realise that tactics were not part of the game from day one. In the beginning, just to stay in the air was a full time job, and fighting was not really in the scenario. Tactics evolved as the pilots grew more experienced and the aircraft became stronger gun platforms and more reliable and manoeuverable. This is brought out very clearly in this book - although I found the two dimensional drawings of aeroplanes making three dimensional direction changes difficult to understand. 

The book runs chronologically and by 1917 the Aces had got fixed ideas and were laying down the rules, in writing, for their comrades and commanders to learn from. It is nice to read of the strategies of the less famous as well as the well known ones. And of course, the tactics involved not only positioning yourself in the air (getting in the sun, at a higher altitude and so on), but also on the ground, with the introduction of Advanced Landing Grounds which were only useful when communications improved. 

The prolific Norman Franks has written another very good book, with excellent photographs some of which are new to me, and an appendix listing the opposing aircraft by year. How late the Allies were in putting two forward firing machine guns into each of their scouts.