2D Dog-fighting Difficulties

Hi all,

I am working on a 2D Dog-Fighter. The AI based on the aircraft's and opponent's rotation to each other (i.e. He's on my 12 O'clock, I'm on his 3 O'clock).

However even though its a pretty complex AI based on a number of complex theories etc.. I end up eventually falling back into the trap of circling aircraft where two AI's end up chasing each other around in circles. Which seams like a pretty reasonable course of action as turning the other way puts you in the line of fire.

I have plans to add "escape maneuvers" in the future. Even though these may solve the problem I want to come up with a solution before adding maneuvers so that the gameplay is better.

Any suggestions or help? (would be much appreciated as the Dog-Fighter as turned into a dog-chasing tail...)

One possible solution could be to add a delayed response whereby the AI's will be making decisions based on the position of the aircraft's, say 1 second ago... but I'm not too sure how to implement this.