New book by a leading aviation historian. Encyclopedia of the best aces of the 20th century - from the birth of this very concept in the air battles of the First World War, when aces (“aces”) began to be called pilots who shot down five or more enemy aircraft, to the grandiose battles of the Great Patriotic War, from the merciless air battle in Korea to the Arab Israeli and Vietnam wars. The author not only provides comprehensive information about the greatest fighter pilots and complete lists of their victories, but also answers the most difficult and controversial questions: What qualities are primarily necessary for victory in the air? What exactly makes a fighter a sky sniper? What makes a pilot an unsurpassed air fighter? What role does military propaganda play in the cult of aces? Why, unlike the Nazis, who immediately turned the Luftwaffe “experts” into an argument for “racial superiority,” did Soviet ideology begin to pay due attention to the most productive “Stalinist falcons” only from the end of 1942? And finally, how reliable are the battle accounts and lists of victories of the best aces of the 20th century?