Best Tank Killer of WW2 continued

[lesofprimus]

Add to Stuka a fighter escort of Hartmmanns Karaya Staffel and in that case Yaks would be dead meet.

And I suppose those fighters stopped all the incoming VVS fighters??? The loss listings for Stukas in Russia is staggering to say the least.... They didnt all go down from AAA....

As far as the 129B goes, it is one of my very favorite aircraft, although the problems it had with the underpowered engines takes it off the Best Of List... Why they decided to use those damn French pieces of sh!t engines still baffles my mind..... I know they wanted to keep the DB engines for the 109 line, but comon.....

They had in their possession the best tank buster of the War and ruined it by underpowering it....

The 75mm gun was just too much for it to fly effectively... Many pilots died in it, even though u could jettison it in emergencies...

 

[imalko]

Is it true that Hs 129Bs cockpit was so small that some flight instruments were located outside on the engine nescelle?

I heard that somewhere but it just sounds strange.

 

[davebender]

As far as the 129B goes, it is one of my very favorite aircraft, although the problems it had with the underpowered engines takes it off the Best Of List... Why they decided to use those damn French pieces of sh!t engines still baffles my mind

Because the Luftwaffe never procured a compact and lightweight air cooled twin radial similiar to the R-1830. You are stuck with either the BMW132 single radial or the monster size and weight BMW801 twin radial. Why didn't the Luftwaffe order the R-1830 to be produced under license from the mid 1930s onward?

 

[lesofprimus]

Yes Malko, its true.... Also, the gunsight was outside the cockpit as well....

 

[imalko]

I thought so. And the gunsight too. Actually I have read about it in several books but never found any pictures to see it and it allways seemed to me strange. (I mean pictures of flight instruments on the engine nescelle, becouse gunsight is visible in front of windscreen on many pictures.)

Not that Germans were not known by making airplanes with small cockpits. Take Bf 109 as example.

As for engines, I think that prototype and Hs 129A were powered with Argus engines same as Arado trainers or Fw 189. Talk about underpowered ground attack airplane in that case.

 

[davebender]

Perhaps the original prototype didn't have armor and weapons installed. That would make quite a weight difference.

 

[fly boy]

i think its the M18 hellcat tank killer tank thing

 

[lesofprimus]

U retard....

 

[Elvis]

Because the Luftwaffe never procured a compact and lightweight air cooled twin radial similiar to the R-1830. You are stuck with either the BMW132 single radial or the monster size and weight BMW801 twin radial. Why didn't the Luftwaffe order the R-1830 to be produced under license from the mid 1930s onward?

Dave,

You know, that's a good question.
I was going to state that the Hindenburg died before engine production started, but I found that just the opposite is true.
Even during The Great War, Germany never seemed too interested "round" engines.
Except for the Eindecker and the Tridecker, everything's an in-line with them.
I know part of the reason for WWII is that Hitler felt agitated at the way Germany was treated after The Great War, so maybe his propensity was not to use designs from one of those countries.

I don't know. Just speculation. That is an interesting observation, though.



Elvis

 

[Vincenzo]

Bramo 323 was not bad

 

[davebender]

Bramo 323 Engine
Bramo 323 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Length. 1,420mm
Diameter. 1,388mm
Weight. 550 kg.
1,000 hp
5,500 engines produced.

P&W R-1830 Engine
Pratt Whitney R-1830 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Length. 1,500mm
Diameter. 1,220mm
Weight. 567 kg
1,200 hp.
173,618 engins produced.

The P&W R-1830 produces 20% more HP yet is significantly smaller in diameter. Compact size is important for a small aircraft like the Hs-129.

Most German aircraft manufacturers preferred the obsolecent BMW132 over the Bramo 323. That says a lot about mechanical reliability, ease of maintenance and other such things that aren't apparent in the statistics.

 

[Ibuki]

Not WWII, but definitely tank busting:
http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/t..._in_korea_vol_1_operations_research_study.pdf
Page 36. Against North Korea tanks napalm was most effective weapon. It killed more than artillery and UN tank fire. First war when air power dominated tanks.

 

[Clay_Allison]

Not WWII, but definitely tank busting:
http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/t..._in_korea_vol_1_operations_research_study.pdf
Page 36. Against North Korea tanks napalm was most effective weapon. It killed more than artillery and UN tank fire. First war when air power dominated tanks.

We should have made up some napalm bombs for the P-47.

 

[davebender]

When did anti tank cluster bombs enter service?

 

[tomo pauk]

In 1943, from here:

PTAB - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Actually, PTABs were dropped from dispensers, but methinks that´s it.

 

[davebender]

Close enough to a cluster bomb for my purposes. I suspect this weapon worked great for killing both armor and soft targets. Just like the modern day Rockeye.
CBU-100 Cluster Bomb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[davebender]

www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org - Luftwaffe Resource Center - Bomb Annex
Apparently the Luftwaffe had a whole family of cluster munitions. The SD4 HL anti armor bomblet was one of the options. This allows any aircraft capable of carrying an AB250 munition container to kill armor.

 

[Elvis]

We should have made up some napalm bombs for the P-47.

Wait a minute....isn't Napalm an invention of WWII?
I think we used it, to some degree, during the Pacific Island hopping campaigns.



Elvis

 

[davebender]

Dropping canisters filled with thickened gasoline (i.e. napalm) is a WWII innovation. However thickened gasoline was invented during WWI for use in flamethrowers. It's also used in Molotov cocktails and various improvised flame devices. Very simple stuff to make.

 

[Elvis]

Ah, I see.
I didn't realize the concept went back that far.
Thanks for the info.


Elvis