the extreme loss of speed. Assuming the defending aircraft successfully forces the aggressor to overshoot the attack, the defender often does not have enough energy to counter-attack. The second more prevalent reason for avoiding the use of the maneuver is taught in most fighter pilot training. When attacking an aircraft, the pilot must be mindful of the closure-rate between both aircraft. If the closure rate is too high, the defender can change direction rapidly, which denies the attacker a shot opportunity, and thereby decreases the Probability of kill. However, if the attacker manages their speed and rate of closure properly, a cobra maneuver would just present the attacker with a larger target to shoot. (Due to the increased presented surface area when the defender is oriented vertically) The cobra maneuver has been used in mock dogfights but there is little to no known documentation of it being used in actual combat. One primary described mock dogfight was fought between a Saab 35 Draken and a Saab 37 Viggen in Swedish service, were the latter pursued the former, when the former suddenly performed a Cobra and got the latter to overshoot. Existing material of this mock dogfight does not cover the elements of the engagement before and after the maneuver in detail, which would be useful in assessing its usefulness in modern combat. Reflective discussions from the pilots does however say that the maneuver was a useful combat move if performed correctly, with the caveat that it was only really effective as a last ditch maneuver due to the loss of speed when performed. History Sweden During the early 1960s, the manoeuvre was developed and performed by Swedish pilots flying the Saab 35 fighter jet. It was invented during training for recovery from super stalls (also known as deep stalls) to which the double delta tailless design of the Saab 35 is susceptible. A super stall is an uncontrollable stall which is much harder to recover from than a standard stall. Super stall plagued the early years of Saab 35 service, causing several deaths, which led the Swedish air staff to implement extra training on how to counteract and recover from them. The result was the cobra maneuver. When pulling high alpha, the pilot would have noticed that he was entering super stall, and would then have pulled negative alpha to recover. The dramatic effect of this maneuver on aircraft speed