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Another thing is that a boat isn't silent, you get used to the noise but it is still there.
The latter Fw 200C3 was strengthened. The issue was more the intense manoeuvring carried out during low level attacks as these incident reports indicate.
The Failure of the RLM/Luftwaffe to provide long range maritime reconnaissance and to the German Navy and its u-boat commerce war was one of its biggest failures.
At very close range, the limit is the training speed of the gun. If the Condor orbits the ship at fairly low speed it can fire MGs broadside while being a difficult target.What blows me away is that a giant aircraft like a Fw 200 took on a ship with a 40mm Boffors at strafing height to bomb and came back to straff and then bomb again. In British service this gun had a range of just over 9000 yards at 45 degrees much more than the 4700 yards of the Pom Pom. In US service the Boffors had an 11000 yards range because of a more powerfull US cartridge. It's a very powerful AAA weapon. It indicates the gun sights must of been ring and bead Iron sights.
I have been on many ferries around the world and inside or outside there is a perpetual hum when the engines are running, out on deck it is still there at a lower level but then there are other sounds, like the splashing and crashing of the bow or just a breeze in your ears and whistling about the superstructure, this is the base sound level or "level of grass" in wave/oscilloscope terms, it is that level an incoming Fw Condor has to get above before it is noticed. I can easily imagine people on a vessel thinking an FW Condor appearing out of no where with its engines off but then suddenly on full power. Even today it is much easier to hear an aircraft far away when you are up on top of a deserted moor than in a town centre. I have only heard blood in my ears once. I was told, or asked, or challenged, or advised by the Imam at my workplace in Saudi Arabia (hard to know what he meant) to go into the desert and watch the sunrise from one hour before. One morning I did, I drove into the desert for a few miles and stopped, got out of the car and watched the sun come up, in fact the sun couldn't be seen. The thing is you couldn't hear anything so you try harder and harder to hear something or just anything, you start hearing insects you cant see and small lizards that are nowhere near you. But most of all you start hearing your heart beating, the sound of your own breathing and a pulsing buzz in your ears which is the sound the blood flowing (or pounding) around them, a very strange experience and a bit like descriptions of sensory deprivation.Good point I think. Wind, sea & engine noise a given. Plus blood pounding in our ears as this huge plane closes on you. Not easy to be an objective observer.
Surfaced submarines were usually recharging batteries, the people on the coning tower on look out were not in a quiet place to hear all there was to hear.There are many U-boat action reports where the lookouts described an attacking Sunderland appearing out of nowhere with no engine/prop noise warning of its approach.
James
What blows me away is that a giant aircraft like a Fw 200 took on a ship with a 40mm Boffors at strafing height to bomb and came back to straff and then bomb again.
I remember the first time I saw a photo of a Condor, and it had a broken back. That particular photo may be the most printed photo of the Condor ever made. I'm not sure I've ever seen another "intact" Condor photo, come to think of it. Sometimes it's hard to reconcile that they were a pretty good and effective aircraft, but after reading about the havoc they wrought on the Murmansk convoys, you have to throw away those first impressions.The Fw 200C-3 still suffered from structural failure though; it was a problem Fw never resolved. Manoeuvring at low level is an integral part of the role, and if the aircraft suffered failure as a result, it was clearly not entirely suited for the job. In saying that however, the Condor proved an extremely effective aircraft, creating a problem for the British out of proportion to the numbers operated...
if the Condor is descending rapidly to attack a ship with bombs, it would be wise to throttle back so the airframe doesn't overspeed.
As the plane descends it will accelerate due to gravity and if I understand the Condor, it was an airliner with a semi weak airframe.
I would imagine you are looking for wakes for there was very little radar available
The plane if doing a visual search looking for ship wakes would be much better off being high up (5000-10000')
Keep in mind, at 200', you only have 32 miles of visual/radar range due to curvature of earth, 5000' your visual range is huge
at 200 mph you are doing a mile every 18 seconds, not a lot of time to plan and react before you are over target
If a ship is creating a wake, at 10,000', it is easy to spot and also it gives the Condor time to set up for attack (warn crew, arm bombs(?), plan attack)
I was aircrew in P3B's and P3C's and several lives ago, we chased submarines. If we were doing a radar/visual search at 1000'-5000' and needed to get down low, the pilots would throttle back and drop very quickly by pushing nose over. The plane built speed up very quickly.
Timmy
Actually 163295 (5824 Lockheed production number). It was delivered in April of 1990. 2 months later myself and about 5000 other people were laid off as the Burbank facility was closing down By that time however, P-3 production was moved to Plant 42 in Palmdale.Hey there!
While at VP31 (NAS Moffett) while transitioning from P3B's to P3C's, I flew with VP-91 for hours (keep flight pay) and flew in the very last P3C ever built many times
BuNO. 163285?
Timmy
VP-92 NAS Brunswick
1991-2007
InFlightTech/ArmOrd P3C
Radio Operator P3B
Can you tell us more about wake spotting? How long could a wake be for say a tanker, destroyer, trawler. I imagine the art of wake spotting developed by WW2if the Condor is descending rapidly to attack a ship with bombs, it would be wise to throttle back so the airframe doesn't overspeed.
As the plane descends it will accelerate due to gravity and if I understand the Condor, it was an airliner with a semi weak airframe.
I would imagine you are looking for wakes for there was very little radar available
The plane if doing a visual search looking for ship wakes would be much better off being high up (5000-10000')
Keep in mind, at 200', you only have 32 miles of visual/radar range due to curvature of earth, 5000' your visual range is huge
at 200 mph you are doing a mile every 18 seconds, not a lot of time to plan and react before you are over target
If a ship is creating a wake, at 10,000', it is easy to spot and also it gives the Condor time to set up for attack (warn crew, arm bombs(?), plan attack)
I was aircrew in P3B's and P3C's and several lives ago, we chased submarines. If we were doing a radar/visual search at 1000'-5000' and needed to get down low, the pilots would throttle back and drop very quickly by pushing nose over. The plane built speed up very quickly.
Timmy