He was what could be called a “technical pilot”, because he truly understood aircraft, as opposed to some of the deadly combat pilots, like “Pappy” Boyington and Joe Foss, who were ‘angels of death’ in their aircraft.
Technical pilots are a rarer breed, and extraordinarily valuable. Combat pilots win battles, but technical pilots win wars. There are also tactical pilots, like John Thach, creator of the famous “Thach weave”.
It should also be mentioned that the Germans had a combat pilot, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, who was so experienced that he became a technical pilot, many of his ideas being integrated into the Thunderbolt II “Warthog”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Brown_(pilot)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappy_Boyington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Foss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thach
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thach_Weave
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Ulrich_Rudel
Not air-to-air, as he flew the slow Stuka, but by the sheer number of missions flown, being shot at on every mission. Had numerous crashes, lost a leg in one and was back flying a month later.
At one point he was ordered grounded by Hitler, so as not to allow the Russians a chance to kill a national hero, but he disobeyed the order.