Editing Flying ace (section)

===World War&nbsp;I===
{{See also|Lists of World War&nbsp;I flying aces|Aerial victory standards of World War&nbsp;I|Balloon buster}}
[[File:Manfred von Richthofen.jpg|thumb|left|upright|German Captain [[Manfred von Richthofen]], known as the "Red Baron", scored the most officially accepted kills (80) in World War&nbsp;I and is arguably the most famous flying ace of all time.]]

World War&nbsp;I introduced the systematic use of true single-seat fighter aircraft, with enough speed and agility to catch and maintain contact with targets in the air, coupled with armament sufficiently powerful to destroy the targets. Aerial combat became a prominent feature with the [[Fokker Scourge]], in the last half of 1915. This was also the beginning of a long-standing trend in warfare, showing statistically that approximately five percent of combat pilots account for the majority of air-to-air victories.<ref name="Dunnigan, p. 149"/>

As the [[Jagdstaffeln|German fighter squadrons]] usually fought well within German lines, it was practicable to establish and maintain very strict guidelines for the official recognition of victory claims by German pilots. Shared victories were either credited to one of the pilots concerned or to the unit as a whole – the destruction of the aircraft had to be physically confirmed by locating its wreckage, or an independent witness to the destruction had to be found. Victories were also counted for aircraft forced down within German lines, as this usually resulted in the death or capture of the enemy aircrew.

Allied fighter pilots fought mostly in German-held airspace<ref>Shores et al. 1990, p. 6.</ref><ref>Guttman 2009, p. 39.</ref> and were often not in a position to confirm that an enemy aircraft had  crashed, so these victories were frequently claimed as "driven down", "forced to land", or "out of control" (called "probables" in later wars). These victories were usually included in a pilot's totals and citations for decorations.<ref>Shores, Franks and Guest, 1990, p. 8.</ref>

[[File:René Fonck 02.jpg|thumb|upright|French Colonel [[René Fonck]], to this day the highest-scoring Allied flying ace with 75 victories]]

The British high command considered the praise of fighter pilots to be detrimental to equally brave bombers and reconnaissance aircrew – so that the British air services did not publish official statistics on the successes of individuals. Nonetheless, some pilots did become famous through press coverage,<ref name = Payne /> making the British system for the recognition of successful fighter pilots much more informal and somewhat inconsistent.  One pilot, [[Arthur Lee (RAF officer)|Arthur Gould Lee]], described his own score in a letter to his wife as "Eleven, five by me solo — the rest shared", adding that he was "miles from being an ace".<ref>Lee 1968, p. 208.</ref> This shows that his [[No. 46 Squadron RAF]] counted shared kills, but separately from "solo" ones&mdash;one of a number of factors that seems to have varied from unit to unit. Also evident is that Lee considered a higher figure than five kills to be necessary for "ace" status. Aviation historians credit him as an ace with two enemy aircraft destroyed and five driven down out of control, for a total of seven victories.<ref>Shores et al. 1990, pp. 236–237.</ref>

Other Allied countries, such as France and Italy, fell somewhere in between the very strict German approach and the relatively casual British one. They usually demanded independent witnessing of the destruction of an aircraft, making confirmation of victories scored in enemy territory very difficult.<ref name = "Over 6">Franks and Bailey 1992, p. 6.</ref> The Belgian crediting system sometimes included "out of control" to be counted as a victory.<ref>Pieters 1998, pp. 34, 85.</ref>

The [[United States Army Air Service]] adopted French standards for evaluating victories, with two exceptions – during the summer 1918, while flying under the operational control of the British, the [[17th Weapons Squadron|17th Aero Squadron]] and the 148th Aero Squadron used British standards.<ref name = "Over 6" /> American newsmen, in their correspondence to their papers, decided that five victories were the minimum needed to become an ace.<ref>Farr 1979, p. 55.</ref>

While "ace" status was generally won only by fighter pilots, bombers and reconnaissance crews on both sides also destroyed some enemy aircraft, typically in defending themselves from attack. The most notable example of a non-pilot ace in World War&nbsp;I is [[Charles George Gass]] with 39 accredited aerial victories.<ref>Franks et al. 1997, pp. 18–19.</ref>