Whoever said it wasn't done in real life, didn't have a clue.
That being said, using it as an excuse for doing it in a cartoon game doesn't work either, as we don't risk dying. We have nothing to lose by actually engaging in air combat. No country will be destroyed, no civillians killed etc.
The second we only get one life and we're done playing AH afterwards forever, then you can use real life HO'ing as your justification.
Til then, it doesn't work for me