There were plenty of "air adventure" series for boys written as propaganda during WWII (and a few during the '30s). Dave Dawson, Red Randall, Lucky Terrell, and A Yank in the RAF were just a few.
Aeon 14 has protagonist Tanis Richards' Love Interest Joe Evans, a man talented with both Space Fighters and shuttles. It's mentioned that his Bio-Augmentation includes mods to let him withstand much higher g-forces than non-pilots can, Tanis included (she has to do some nanotechnologyMacGyvering to survive a hard burn in book 2, but Joe is unaffected). A memorable scene in Outsystem has a merc attack against Intrepid get foiled by his fancy flying of a cargo shuttle. Late in the chase, mercs emerge from a hiding place aboard the shuttle and hold the heroes at gunpoint. Then there's a sudden jolt, the mercs' aim is thrown off, and Tanis and the Space Marines fill them with holes.
Joe: Oops, did I clip that cargo net? Sorry about that.
There are plenty of examples in Armada. Most of the protagonists including Zack, RedJive, etc are Ace Pilots (technically, they are drone pilots). RedJive actually goes by the name of The Red Baron.
Bereth in The Arts of Dark and Light is the fantasy equivalent, a skilled hawk rider in Elebrion's air force. Much of her plot arc concerns military actions when her country is invaded.
In Banco, Papillon teams up with a pilot named Carotte. He served in World War II by transporting spies in and out of German-occupied France, sometimes landing his plane with no other visual aid than torches at night. He's a masterful pilot and completely reckless, not afraid of Buzzing the Deck for his amusement, able to land on sloped beaches with a wing trailing in the water, and finally sets down in the middle of a rough road when they're running low on fuel.
Biggles largely helped to cement the trope's popularity during and after WWII, especially to a British audience.
The Bounty Hunter Wars: N'dru Suhlak is a hotshot pilot who washed out of the Rebel Alliance for insubordination and makes a living transporting wanted fugitives away from bounty hunters. Prior to the events of Slave Ship, he's eluded or destroyed the ship of very bounty hunter who pursued him.
Benjamin St. John of the Descent novels is described as having the potential to be the "greatest pilot of the century", which he has not quite achieved. But by the second book, with all the insane wacky piloting he does, no one's doubting the truth behind that statement. Most of his success lies in the fact that he has a habit of taking ludicrous risks and somehow making it out alive (he once, without any propelling power left in his plane, glided into a Martian sandstorm to evade his pursuers).
In the Discworld, Nanny Ogg takes the Dwarf Casanunder on the pillion of her broomstick. Once he gets over the fact that a couple of thousand feet up with nothing underneath him is not a comfortable place for a Dwarf to be, he proves to be a very effective air-gunner with a crossbow as he and Nanny set about knocking flying Elves out of the sky. The Elven yarrow stalk may be faster and more manoevreable than a broomstick; but Nanny and Casanunder demonstrate that an airborne Elf is something of a Glass Cannon. She easily becomes an Ace that night over Lancre.
In Dragonriders of Pern, Anne McCaffrey said that she intentionally modeled the personalities of many of her dragonriders on the Ace Pilot archetype, and for very much the same reasons — they're engaged in an incredibly dangerous business where quick reflexes are critical for survival, said business is critical for the survival of humanity, and the risk of horrible death looms over every flight.
In The Dreamside Road, Orson Gregory is an odd example of the plugger class of ace. He’s extremely dangerous in the air, but most of his apparent skill comes from creativity and his years of practice, instead of the usual technical mastery. When chased by the Liberty Corps fighters, he makes up for his limited dogfighting experience with his years of casual flight experience and personal ingenuity.
In The Flight Engineer the protagonist, Commander Peter Raeder, has seven confirmed kills to his name which makes him the first ace of the Commonwealth/Mollie conflict. Unfortunately, in the same engagement where he scored his last four kills he also lost his hand, ending his career as a fighter pilot.
In The Black Gryphon, Skandranon is the finest flier among Urtho's gryphons. Skandranon is also called "The Black Gryphon" because he has his feathers painted black. He utilizes both Steamroller and Bushwhacker styles, and his M.O. tends to be "get in way over my head, then improvise my way through it."
Mary in It Can't Happen Here. Galvanized by her husband's murder and her father's incarceration, she joins the Corpo Women's Flying Corps and trains as a bomber pilot. She is later assigned to escort District Commissioner Swan's plane to Washington. She crashes her plane into Swan's, killing Swan, his aides, and herself.
Jack Ryan has Lt. Colonel Dan Malloy, a hot hand at using his chopper to get Team Rainbow into place. He's promoted to flying the President around by the next book.
Recurring character Bronco Winters shows up in several books (specifically Clear and Present Danger, Executive Orders (though he isn't named), and The Bear And the Dragon). He makes ace (five kills) by Executive Orders, though because some of his kills are classified from a special operation, he's not "officially" an ace until The Bear and the Dragon, where, in his first engagement, he gets five confirmed kills and makes it look easy. He becomes a double ace (ten kills) in the very next engagement.
The Kaiju Preservation Society: Martin Satie is the pilot of Tanaka Base's Chopper Two. He's a master pilot, who's got lots of experience getting close to kaijus and flying circles around them. Probably closest to the Bushwhacker style, though one could make a case for Plugger. Colonel Martin Satie is officially the Royal Canadian Air Force liason to Tanaka Base, but paperwork is boring and flying helicopters around kaiju is interesting.
Lacuna has Alex "Jazz" Aharoni, who comes aboard the ship as the best pilot the Israeli air-force could muster.
The Lost Starship has Keith Maker, a former strikerfighter ace who fought on the losing side of a civil war, losing his brother in the process. He retired, returned to his native Scotland, and opened a bar. In the first novel, he is recruited by Captani Maddox for the crazy mission to find and tame an ancient alien warship in order to give the Commonwealth a chance against the New Men. Maker (who has been granted the rank of ensign) has to struggle with being The Alcoholic, as well as his Survivor Guilt, but he prevails and shows off his piloting skills numerous times. [[spoiler:At the end of the first novel, he is promoted to second lieutenant and offered a join a new training program for an elite unit. Considering his hands itch when he isn't holding control sticks, he gladly accepts.
Orion: First Encounter : Erin becomes this, despite still being a young student, via a computer that rewires her brain.
Captain Bertholt, a minor character in The Outlaws, is the commander of the Bavarian battalion during the Kapp rebellion. He served as a fighter pilot in WW 1 with the ultimate score of 55 enemies shot down (this is the number mentioned in the book; in Real Life Bertholt had only 45 aerial victories).
In the Larry Bond novel Red Phoenix set during a Second Korean War, one USAF F-16 pilot gets over 13 North Korean aircraft before being shot down. He is rescued by South Korean Special Forces, survives the novel and gets the girl.
In Shadow of the Conqueror, Daylen is one of the few people skilled enough to fly skyships and similar vehicles with all safeties disengaged. Everyone who has every flown with him at the helm thinks of these maneuvers as absolutely crazy, but Daylen makes them work. As the inventor of the annihilator, he's brought aerial destruction like nothing his world has ever seen, as well.
In The Sixth Battle, there is a discussion of ace pilots among the pilots of Langley, some who get the title themselves.
In Space Glass Nicora Eidenburg and Marvelous Dagon both show their expertise. Marvelous in particular out maneuvers an entire army.
Star Carrier has Trevor "Sandy" Gray, who earns his nickname after ordering his squad to launch AMSO (also known as "sand") canisters, typically used as a missile shield, at near-c speeds at a large alien fleet that has invaded the Solar System. The result? A massive shotgun blast that cripples the alien armada, forcing it to retreat even before the capital ships arrive. This becomes a standard tactic in later books. Gray is also notable for coming from a "Prim" background, having grown up in the flooded ruins of Manhattan with no modern technology. Gray ends up not only surviving to become an admiral twenty years later, but also engages in negotiations with the Sh'daar Masters, which results in a ceasefire. It's actually not uncommon for Space Fighter pilots to have capital ship kills on their record, considering their standard armament includes dozens of powerful nuclear missiles, a KK cannon, and a particle beam projector. Standard fleet tactics also dictate launching several squadrons as soon as a fleet arrives to a hostile system, with the fighters accelerating to near-c speeds using gravitic propulsion and then launching nukes at those speeds. The impact of a nuke, traveling at relativistic speeds, usually destroys any ship.
In Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40,000 novel Double Eagle, every single protagonist is one of these. Oskar Viltry is a rare bomber-flying version Though later he switches to fighters. The primary ace on the Chaos side is a Bushwhacker, who is ultimately defeated by tricking him into getting too focused on a single target (something repeatedly mentioned to be a cardinal sin in a large-scale dogfight). While the Chaos pilot was concentrating on trying to tag a skilled Plugger, a Sniper was able to draw a bead on him.
The Wild Blue and the Grey is an alternate history novel in which the Confederate States of America participate in WWI on the Western Front (having been helped to independence by the French and British). The protagonist is a Cherokee pilot (Oklahoma is also independent and allied with the Confederacy) with the Confederate Air Corps named Amos Ninekiller; after he starts racking up kills the press starts hoping he'll actually score nine so that they can write a puntastic headline. William Faulkner is a pilot in the same unit.
Mack Maloney's Wingman series features a number of Ace Pilots among the protagonists, but especially Hawk Hunter, the title character.
The X-Wing Series in the Star WarsLegends delves quite deeply into the fighter pilots of the Rebels/New Republic, as led by Wedge Antilles. The first of the Wraith Squadron sub-series has the New Meat pilots ask Wes Janson and Wedge who was the best pilot they ever flew with: the two of them reminisce at length about skilled pilots who died due to bad luck, and others like Skywalker who had incredible skills but moved on to other things. Wes concludes that the only real way to objectively measure pilot skill is total kill count and survivability, making Wedge Antilles (the only pilot to survive both Death Star runs) the best pilot in history. Wedge, naturally, demurs. All sorts of pilot types, especiallyThe Ace, make appearances, and there are discussions of the five-kill rule, becoming an "instant ace", rivalries between pilots, and many more. Demonstrations of styles include:
Wes Janson — Definite Sniper, though with better dogfighting skills than the typical Sniper. He's a sniper with any ranged weapon, in or out of the cockpit. Most of the time he doesn't even need sights; he can tell with his eyes alone when an enemy is in his line of fire, whether they're a TIE Fighter a kilometer away in a dogfight or Stormtroopers to both sides of him while dual-wielding blaster pilosts.
Wedge Antilles — Most likely Steamroller. Against most opponents, he's simply too good to be nailed down to a particular tactic, but when the enemy has him boxed up, he tends to get increasingly daring. Further, his save of Luke, in the original movie, is pure steamroller. He's noticed his own Plot Armor, and at the start of the series the kill silhouettes painted on his X-Wing include two Death Stars and an alarming number of other big ships. He's shot down so many starfighters by that point that a mechanic apologizes for not being able to fit them all into the space allotted, and had to render some in red, marking a squadron's worth of kills. Being Wedge, it makes no difference to him how his kills are grouped; he never brags about being one of the best pilots in history.
He's shown to have a strange grasp on what his opponents are thinking and what they'll do — before they do it. It's powerful enough that he once calls it "precognitive", though immediately after that he chalks it up to pure pattern-recognition gained through endless hours of experience. Wedge also has the ability to think incredibly fast in high stress situations, taking the circumstances in and making a complicated decision in a second or less. This has nothing to do with the Force.
Wedge has a counterpart in his brother-in-law Worthy Opponent Baron Fel, who is the page image. Fel is skilled enough that it's canon he reestablishes the Empire...
Tycho Celchu — Probably Bushwhacker. His flying style is described by a Force-sensitive opponent (who is also a phenomenal pilot) as being incredibly complex, with him constantly thinking of ways to box in the enemy, anticipating his moves, and potential paths out of the line of fire and back to a position behind the enemy. Wedge once says, "You see a target coming in, you see him launch missiles, choose one vector for him and fire in that direction. One time in ten you'll choose right and you'll vape him. Unless you're Tycho Celchu, when it's one time in four."
Derek "Hobbie" Klivian is a pilot known for his remarkable skill at surviving, despite runs of bad luck; few of his tactics are seen, but his ability to keep alive, turning even lethal shots into hits that allow him to eject and recover, may be evidence of being of Plugger.
There are plenty of other pilots, but those illustrate the styles best. Another EU book, Death Star, makes it clear that Darth Vader doesn't really fit any category, except perhaps the double-secret probationary Sniperollbushplugwhacker. He was able to make the second best Imperial pilot, pictured above, who is good enough to make a decent protagonist pilot feel like a child who can barely walk trying to keep up with a champion distance runner, look like a clueless farmboy. Casually. Without using a targeting computer, which, the protagonist believes, is outright impossible. The Force — and to be completely accurate, thirty-plus years of experience and ageless cybernetic components — helps pilots, clearly. Another thing to take into account is just how much of Vader's body is cybernetic. Think about how a pilot experiences extreme movement of blood from the extremities to the brain during strenuous maneuvers. Now think about a pilot without extremities, whose body doesn't have the same necessities as a typical human. And give him the power of the force. In Death Star, after flying against Vader in practice the top TIE pilot on the station narrates that, if he ever ends up on the wrong end of Vader's guns for real, he'll just self-destruct his ship to save time.
Special mention goes to Kell Tainer, an ex-mechanic whose expertise stems from detailed knowledge of his fighter's systems and capabilities. On several occasions, he can perform on-the-fly analysis of damage to his or other pilots' fighters, can direct precision strikes on enemy capital ships, and push the technical limits of his ship as far as it'll go. His most noteworthy performance is attempting to ram an allied fighter out of a terminal dive; although he failed to save her, his sheer nerve and improvisation earned him awards.
Luke Skywalker gets another mention here. In total piloting ability, he's in the same neighborhood as his father, and in some books he's shown racking up an impressive count of enemy fighters. Part of this ability, of course, comes from being a Jedi, and his ability to use the Force to augment his senses pushes his piloting ability far beyond what his purely mundane skills would allow. Even before receiving Jedi training, however, he was a highly-skilled bush pilot.
In the X-Wing Series' ninth book, Starfighters of Adumar, the titular planet is a Planet of Hats where Ace Pilots are the elite of society. But since it's also a Proud Warrior Race which sees no point in simulator practice, and the attrition rates of new pilots are appalling, none of them are very skilled. Even those with obvious native talent rarely live long enough to become truly skilled. This means that when the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant send their best pilots alive there on a diplomatic function, said pilots are all but worshiped. And subject to endless attempts to kill them for their status.
Another special mention should go to Wedge's eldest daughter, Syal Antilles, who manages to fight Luke Skywalker to a standstill in a dogfight. Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker. That's a feat few, if anyone else, can put on their record.
Later in the timeline is Han’s daughter Jaina, who inherited her dad’s talent. She became a prominent member of Rogue Squadron herself.
by a Force-sensitive opponent (who is also a phenomenal pilot) as being incredibly complex, with him constantly thinking of ways to box in the enemy, anticipating his moves, and potential paths out of the line of fire and back to a position behind the enemy. Wedge once says, "You see a target coming in, you see him launch missiles, choose one vector for him and fire in that direction. One time in ten you'll choose right and you'll vape him. Unless you're Tycho Celchu, when it's one time in four."