You can be my wingman any time.

Who is regarded as the greatest flying ace of all time? I'd have to go with my namesake.

That would be Erich Hartmann (1922-1993), the Blond Knight of Germany. His 352 confirmed aerial victories in World War II are unrivaled and especially impressive considering that was from November 5, 1942 to May 8, 1945 (about 30 months).

Major Hartmann was shot down and captured in 1943, but escaped his Soviet captors. Unhappy regarding his success in the Russian front, Russia kept him as a POW in Siberia from 1945-55, a sentence which the Russian government would later declare to be illegal. Upon release he was reunited with his wife and served as an officer in the West German Air Force, training USAF pilots as well before his retirement in 1970.