In CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, our hero takes the controls of an enemy plane and purposely crashes it to save the day; if, at some point, he’d taken down four other enemy planes – and at this point, I can’t recall how many other enemy planes he took out in that fim; it may have been four – would he technically count as an ace?
Don’t you have to take out a plane that’s in flight to be an ace? He only took out two of the small bombers actually in flight, and one of those was by crashing it back into the Valkyrie - what he did was more akin to sinking an aircraft carrier than shooting them down. If a submarine sinks a carrier, does the sub captain become a 20x ace?
Well, the Valkyrie was in flight when he took it out, right?
So that’s – three?
I could go along with saying he gets no further points for bringing down the small bombers that hadn’t yet been launched. But does he get points for bringing down the ones that did get launched, plus a point for bringing down the Valkyrie? (IIRC, without actually firing a shot at any of them?)
Can you add the Helicarriers that he brought down in the second movie? Does it count if you bring them down from the inside by replacing a micro chip?
Come to think of it, doesn’t he also bring down that one low-flying plane in the sequel by motorcycling close enough to spang his trusty shield off various parts of it?
That right! He brought down that Quinnjet by punching it! That’s gotta count for something.
The thing is, can he convince fighter pilots that what he did counts?
For another question then - if you’re the commander of an AA gun and shoot down 5 enemy planes, which is much more akin to what Cap did, does that make you an ace?
Wikipedia (yeah yeah) says a Flying Ace is a military aviator (usually but not necessarily a pilot) who shoots down enemies during aerial combat. So taking down the helicarriers definitely doesn’t count, nor does taking down the plane with the motorcycle. The other takedowns still might not count because Captain America is not a military aviator.
Anyway, since it’s Captain America were’ talking about, the American pilots would still be totally on board with offering him the award and Captain America would humbly reject it so as to not overshadow the efforts of America’s brave aviators.
How many enemy planes does he have to take out until he’s promoted to Major America?
He’s been in the service since WWI, you’d think he’d be a general by now.
Uh, that’s President America to you.
Was “Ace” ever an official designation, or just something the flyboys called each other and it stuck?
Bravo, Johnny, Bravo
I thought the MCU had him starting in WW II.
My big question is: did he get any back pay for the time he was frozen when he was finally thawed?
So do the comics.
Oops, missed the second I.
Yes, and his first thought was that he was filthy rich. Then he went and bought a nice condo in DC…
Who do you think you are, Nick Fury?
Or his son, Nick Fury II.