[Ads-l] . Antedating of "Wing-Man"

[James Landau]

Google Books has a number of occurrences of "wing man" in 1941 and 1942.  I didn't have time to go through these, but here is one:

https://books.google.com/books?id=_lAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16&dq=wing+man&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjxg_ay5Kn8AhVQEVkFHbv3ATEQ6AF6BAgHEAI#v=onepage&q=wing%20man&f=false


Life Magazine  April 19, 1942 volume and number illegible, page 16 in an article entitled "HOW O'HARE DOWNED 5 JAP PLANES IN ONE DAY".  The articles, quoting O'Hare's squadron commander John S. Thach, uses the term "wing man" on page 16.

Thach is a possibility for having originated the term "wing man" since he was noted for inventing fighter tactics, many of them involving pairing up a pilot with a wing man (e.g. the "Thach weave", in which the pilot and wing man are constantly turning towards each other in order to shoot enemy planes that were on the tail of one of the planes).  Another possibility is Claire Lee Chennault of Flying Tigers fame who claims (in his autobiography _Way of a Figter_) to have invented fighter tactics that were later independently re-invented by others who received the credit for them.
James A. Landau    

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