Even that minimum gives around 44 yards separation on a plane travelling at 180MPH. or 1/8 of a mile for a stick of 5 bombs.
Hi All.....
- Thread starter billrunnels
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Greg Boeser
2nd Lieutenant
Well, I wouldn't want to be 22 yards between two exploding bombs, unless I was in some really hard cover.
The point I was making was that looking at a picture of the bombs leaving the aircraft it is hard to imagine they would land so far apart, all based on identiacal ballistics of course which is impossible.
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Keep in mind the indicated air speed on the B-17 during the bomb run was 150 mph. The actual ground speed could be more or less depending on the wind and crab. the trajectory of the falling bomb varied with each type of bomb. The intervelometer settings included settings for train release and ground speed. The height of the target above sea level also effects the bomb trajectory because of the lower densities encountered. So many factors affected the actual bomb impact distance on the ground.
at6
1st Sergeant
Zipper may well still be a wee bit younger than most of us. I'm 67 and still get miffed at kids not knowing who Jimmy Doolittle, Douglas Bader,
Francis Gabreski, Gregory "Pappy" Boyington or so many of my other childhood heroes are or were. So I guess we should cut the wee one a little slack.
Thanks Bill but I was cheating, 180MPH may or may not be close to the bombing ground speed, it is exactly 3 miles minute though.
It has to do with the issue of distance covered versus time: If you're doing 150 mph, you're covering 220 feet per second, so if one bomb comes off a second after, even if it's ballistic arc was exactly the same, it left the plane one second after, so will land 220 feet further downrange.
Admittedly 150 mph indicated airspeed at 25000 feet is something like 230 mph, so it'd be more like 337 feet: If the intervalometer was set for 1/20th a second release it'd be a little under 17 feet between each bomb.
I'll be 34 in 13 days...
I'm surprised they wouldn't know who Doolittle was, I know who Gabreski and Boyington are... I'm not exactly proud of not knowing who Douglas Bader is -- though after doing some googling -- I know he was a WWII ace who was shot down in 1941 and was held at Colditz castle until the wars end.
I did know of an ace who lost his legs and flew with prosthetic and could hold higher g-loads ironically because of it: I did not know it was him (I usually tend to remember things like that)
at6
1st Sergeant
Bader lost both legs just before the war due to performing low level aerobatics in what if I remember the book correctly, was a Bristol Bulldog. The only other amputee that I know of would have Hans Ulrich Rudel having lost one leg in combat and still continued to fly JU-87s into combat.
at6
1st Sergeant
Hey Bill, I told you that he was probably a wee lad.
at6
1st Sergeant
I never knew about the movie. I read the book a number of times as child. I have a copy of "God is My Copilot" that I still read sometimes.
That is why I'm enjoying Bill's snippets of information so much. Thank you Bill for the first hand accounts.
That is why I'm enjoying Bill's snippets of information so much. Thank you Bill for the first hand accounts.
Lucky13
Forum Mascot
Aviations version of beer goggles?
fubar57
General
There is one more RAF fighter pilot that was a double leg amputee but I can't remember if I read it in a book or on line just recently. I really hope someone doesn't destroy this great thread. Back to you Bill
I remember watching it as a starry eyed kid thinking everything on TV must be true. My father just remarked that "there were many people hated his guts" which confused me a lot. To me he was a man of his time, he isn't here to defend himself and there is no rule that says heroes have to be perfect in every way at all times.
fubar57
General
Thanks kindly, you saved me a ton of reading. If I post something I have to find the source and this would have consumed me
Do you think I am an encyclopedia? Google is your friend, I just googled "RAF pilot amputee" and it is the third result.
fubar57
General
Sadly the internet in camp is sketchy at best, think dial-up but 10x worse. If a thread here or on another site has photos....forget it. I get booted from this site 3-5 time in half an hour and this is my 3rd attempt at writing this post. When I get home after a week in camp I have a minimum of 7 pages to catch up on from this site. Thanks again for the link, I'll read it when I get home
Lucky13
Forum Mascot
Camp Fubar?
