<DIV style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:10pt;"><DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Sun, 2 Dec 2007 at 12:41:45 Zulu-5 Jesse Sheidlower <[log in to unmask] wrote:</FONT> <BR><FONT face="Times New Roman">["wingman"] is at least a few years older. It was current when I went to college in the early 80s (1981-85). I'm pretty sure that it's the movie _Top Gun_ (1986) that made this a widespread term. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">I don't have any references available at the moment, but "wingman" dates from World War II. It may have been used in the Battle of Britain, but it was an important concept in the Pacific. Japanese fighter planes were more maneuverable than American fighter planes, so a Japanese fighter pilot would use his superior maneuverability to get behind an American fighter and the American pilot would find it quite difficult to escape. So American fighter pilots were taught to fly in pairs. When attacked by Japanese fighters, they could go into the "Thach weave" in which one plane would turn so that the other one had a clear shot at any Japanese fighter on his tail, and then the two planes would swap positions so that the first plane protected the second. (Jimmy Thach was the fighter commander on the USS Yorktown. At the Battle of Midway he used his weave to survive when his six-plane formation was attacked by about 20 Zeroes).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Hence one's "wingman" was one's bodyguard/friend in need/etc.</FONT> <BR><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">There is a story about one pilot who asked how closely as wingman he should follow his leader. He was told that if his leader crashed into the ground he was to crash next to it.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">I have never seen _Top Gun_ so I don't know if "wingman" was used in that movie as the technical term for the second pilot in a two-plane flight, or with the extended meaning of reliable friend, or both.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">OT: (for the eggcorn databass people) I once saw "Grumman's Chinese Theater". This struck me as the obvious place for the premiere of _Top Gun_.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"> James A. Landau</FONT> <BR><FONT face="Arial" size="2"> test engineer</FONT> <BR><FONT face="Arial" size="2"> Northrop-Grumman Information Technology</FONT> <BR><FONT face="Arial" size="2"> 8025 Black Horse Pike, Suite 300</FONT> <BR><FONT face="Arial" size="2"> West Atlantic City NJ 08232 USA</FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">PS: That Chanukah poem, while it was garbled in the e-mails sent out by the LISTSERV (including the copy I got), it shows up in correct format in the Archives, so I don't know whether the problem is with Netscape or with the LISTSERV</FONT></DIV><BR> <BR><HR>Netscape. Just the Net You Need.</DIV>N€™êâq©Ã‰©^rÔ¨r'Êm§ÿðæz¸œjwbjWœ¶Šà