My old dad was an armour at Duxford in the battle of Britain, uncle Sid a mechanic. Now wish I'd listened to what they told me a lot more it just didn't seem that interesting when i was a young child sad to say!.
Heard quite a bit later on re my aunt and the yank airmen having fights as to who took her out! They often got ordered back to base by a senior officer but any bloke who had a pack of Nylons was guaranteed a good time that night!...
Lot's of it effectively will though won't it? Ok, not the heavy compact stuff like an engine but large areas of fuselage and wing will as good as if presented side on to the wind?
Like, I wonder how much forward motion a skydiver maintains when they jump out of an aeroplane ... and how say an empty wooden crate might act by comparison?
Even if something only shows to 50 mph by the time the other plane gets's there, I'm not sure what chance the pilot would have of avoiding it or how much less damage it would do if it wasn't moving at all.
Hitting something at 250 or 300 mph etc?
And if something blows up in the air in front of you, some of it could end up stationary if it's blown backwards at 300 mph?
Cheers, T i m
There is some clever kit out there ... that we hope we never have to rely on ... (to be in the position to need to), like the Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CIWS / 'sea-wiz'). It reminds me of something off a Science Fiction show ... like an autonomous 'Laser Cannon'. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
Relatively cheap drones and cruise missiles seem to be the way forward.
Wasn't that a problem with Argentinians not playing cricket and coming in lower than the surrounding cliffs?
I recall a quote that Dog-fighting in a 'Spitfire' was like having a knife fight in a phonebox whilst modern dogfights were beyond visual range affairs using long distance (30 miles or so) missiles . ROE allowing non-visual ID of course. Which most don't hence dog-fighting still being a thing but due to the speeds attained by modern aircraft, manouveres have to be wide and sweeping (airframes can 'handle more G than pilots time to remove men(this includes Women pilots) from the cockpit and institute more drones?)
called a 'drone'
Exocets.
In message , T i m writes
Not really. I think tanks were being produced at Luton and there were a few air raids here. Too far North to be involved in the battle of Britain. My parents said that German bombers would climb for height here and then dive for home, dropping bombs on London as they went.
Pass.
The farmhouse barn ridge was rolled lead sheet with shotgun pellet holes where some previous occupant had shot at Pigeons or possibly Rats!
Possibly requires too much infrastructure.
Nope. The spent cartridge cases were ejected from the aircraft.
You're alluding to the pre-war drill of the Standard Attack No.1, which was for a section of three fighters to fall in to line astern, and queue up behind the enemy bomber to have a go in turn. This homely practice came to an end very early on, especially where the bombers were escorted by fighters, and it was replaced by the 'Tally Ho!' tactics of each man to pick his own target in the bomber formation.
The next thing to go was the 'vic' formation, as three aircraft manoeuvring together in combat was unwieldy. We copied the Germans 'finger four' formation, of two pairs of two fighters, each section comprising a leader and a wingman. We didn't know at that time the Germans had copied it in turn from the Polish formations they encountered in 1939.
An FPV drone can be bought for under a grand. scaled up a bit and mounting a lethal weapon, they need almost no infrastructure at all. A charge point is all. Maybe satnav if flying out of sight
It's like all the road signs you see in the rural areas of America, most seem to have bullet holes in them. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
I specifically said 30mm casings ... and A10.
"Although the A-10 can carry a considerable amount of munitions, its primary built-in weapon is the 30×173 mm GAU-8/A Avenger autocannon. One of the most powerful aircraft cannons ever flown, it fires large depleted uranium armor-piercing shells. The GAU-8 is a hydraulically driven seven-barrel rotary cannon designed specifically for the anti-tank role with a high rate of fire. The cannon's original design could be switched by the pilot to 2,100 or 4,200 rounds per minute; this was later changed to a fixed rate of 3,900 rounds per minute. The cannon takes about half a second to reach top speed, so 50 rounds are fired during the first second, *65 or 70 rounds per second thereafter*. "
You are welcome. ;-)
Quite.
See above, keep up. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
There are some interesting snippets in Jonnie Johnson's book, Wing Leader. Bader's hatred of the early cannon firing Spitfires, the change to metal airlerons from fabric, variable pitch propellers, improved superchargers and the later versions culminating in his preference for the mark 9.
Ok, thanks.
I wasn't actually alluding to anything specific, just wondering in general.
Ok.
I guess little is actually new in most things.
When I used to regularly play Pariah online (team games, FPS) we would practice moves between matches and each rehearsed sequence would typically work *once*. As soon as the opposition had seen it they would come up with a counter move (of course).
One was me driving the buggy with a passenger. I would drive up onto their base, the passenger jumps out and runs though their base, capturing their flag as they did to exit the other side of the building. As they were doing this I'd be driving round the back of their base and meet up with them as they exited. The rest of our team would keep the opposition distracted but try not to kill them (as they would then re-spawn back at their base).
I guess one way of determining the effectiveness of any formation or attack sequence is to note the losses. ;-(
Cheers, T i m
At some point in its development, the "exhaust" from the GAU was enough to cause an engine flameout in flight.
Paul
It is a crazy bit of kit.
Was it also fact that the plane was actually slowed ('measurably', I know 'Every action has an equal and opposite reaction' so even a single bullet fired forward would have an effect to a tiny degree)) when the gun was fired?
Cheers, T i m
p.s. We used to watch the A10's and others doing touch-n-goes at RAF Lakenheath. ;-)
Mark IX the best of the Merlins 2-4 cannon, pressurised cockpit,
40,000ft ceiling, fast with a two stage supercharger. Better vis. with the bubble canopy and a gyro gun sight.
In article , Chris Hogg writes
Hurricanes had cannon and were better suited to attacking bombers, which is how they were use. Me109s also had cannon.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required