A flying 'ace is a military aviator who has been credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The actual number of aerial victories (kills) required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied over time and location, but is usually considered amongst pilots to be 5 or more. The few aces among combat aviators have historically accounted for the majority of air-to-air victories in military history. Nazi Germany's Erich Hartmann is the ace of aces, the highest scoring ace of all time with a total of 352 confirmed victories. It is to be noted that many of Erich Hartmann victims (I hear 100 or so) were shity early era and sometimes even bi-plane Soviet fighters that could have been shot down with a Nazi pea-shooter in 1941!