Fighter pilots from Nellis and throughout TAC often came to Eglin to test weapons. Boyd grabbed them and talked for hours of how airplanes could maneuver against each other, about how he was trying to quantify their performance. In the middle of a conversation he suddenly would stop, pull out a scrap of paper, and scratch out an equation or a few notes. The more he talked, the more he understood about what he was trying to do. Each soliloquy was another step toward wherever it was he was going.
Real world triangulation
