Reed Cassidy: Some day it'll just end. Everyone will go home, get on with their lives. Tall grass will cover the battlefields. And all the pilots we've lost won't mean a damn thing.
Captain Thenault: Reports can be filed. But you want "justice"? You're the man in the air. You're the man with the gun.
Blaine Rawlings: You, uh, slip there, killer?
Eugene Skinner: You still wanna rub my head for luck, Rawlings?
Chosen answer: Biplanes were not very fast in flight. For instance a Sopwith Camel at about 5000 ft altitude had a cruise speed of approximately 100 mph. A Fokker had a cruise speed of about 95 mph. A typical WWI handgun could shoot 830 feet per second. With the distances between the planes as shown in the movie, a bullet could travel between the planes in less than half a second. The pilot would have to lead the target some, but he conceivably could hit the other pilot if close enough.
rswarrior