What about great flying feats from the chaps on the other side?
Saburo Sakai (I think) wrote of a young pilot who he met one day. They got talking about the large aircraft the young man was flying and the subject came around to aerobatics. The pilot said he had often wondered if his aircraft, though obviously not designed for it, could fly through a loop. It was shortly afterwards that Sakai was on a mission and he saw one of the same type get hit and catch on fire. As the fire grew, he saw the nose pitch over, the speed increase and then the nose start to rise as the aircraft clawed skywards.
He realised who the pilot was and what he was trying to accomplish with what was left of his brief life.