B-17G Cutaway

[plan_D]

It's good picture though, don't you think?

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

not really, it doesn't show the ful scale of the B-36.............

 

[plan_D]

I'll try and get one next to a B-29.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

there is somewhere, it's in the Big bombers topic...........

 

[plan_D]

I know, I posted it...

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

fiar doos........

and do you think the B-36 would have got shot down by the germans if they had taken brittian and had to bomb from america........

 

[Lightning Guy]

It would have been a situation similar to the unescorted raids of 1943 since no fighter was going to make that distance (although tests were done using a B-36 to tow or carry a fighter under the fuselage). The B-36 had some pretty awesome firepower and more accurate sights. I'm not claiming that the B-36 was invulnerable, but it did have a better chance than a B-17 on its own.

 

[plan_D]

I heard of tests of B-29s carrying a Mustang under each wing for escorts...

Now that's some crazy idea.

 

[Lightning Guy]

I've never heard of that. Would have been interesting. I've got a book with a pic of a B-36 carrying an F-84 Thunderstreak under it's fuselage though.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

remeber it would take one hell of allot of shots to bring one down..............

 

[Lightning Guy]

Yeah, it would have been immensely tough. But the 30mm shells the Germans used in their interceptors were terribly lethal.

 

[plan_D]

It depends where you hit it, if those 30mm punish the wing roots the wing could just fall off.

 

[Lightning Guy]

Or a fuel tank.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but this thinh was huge, it would be prettu tough, and it had something like 20 cannon with better sights, it would be bloody tough

 

[plan_D]

Being bigger is a bigger target. And if you have a Me-262 coming at you at high speed your slow firing cannon isn't going to do much because the Swallow will be bloody hard to hit.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but even if you did hit a fuel tank, it had a range of 10,000 miles, it's not gonna miss a bit of fuel...............

 

[Lightning Guy]

I was talking about the Fuel tank exploding.

The B-36 carried 16 20mm cannons. Now, over Korea, B-29s with .50cal mg took their toll on MiG-15s (one actually became a MiG Ace shooting down 5). It seems reasonable that the B-36 would have shot down alot of Me-262s.

 

[plan_D]

.50 cals are a lot faster firing than 20mms. The cannon would have been hard pressed to get a hit. Losing fuel would have taken its toll on even a plane as big as that, and yes exploding would have been quite bad.

The B-29s in Korea was made obselete the Mig-15s ripped them apart.

 

[Lightning Guy]

I know that but I was discussing their defensive argument. If the B-29 could shoot down MiG-15s, then the B-36 would have been capable of shooting down Me-262s. The lower rate of fire means few hits, but the greater power of the 20mm shell compensates for that.

 

[plan_D]

Not really since it was hard enough hitting fighters with machine guns, let alone cannons. If you can't hit it, you don't do damage.