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Nice paper mhuxt!
The problem is determining the cross-sectional area and all the constants, but it is a pretty decent read.
Thanks!
Hi Mike!
I don't think so ... if you consider only the vertical velocity, you will fail to take into account for the slowing of the horizontal velocity by air resistance and will fall short of you aim point. The TIME OF FALL would be correct if you know the terminal velocity and the equation of it, but the HORIZONTAL TRAVEL DISTANCE would be wrong by a a bit and you'd impact short of target.
mhuxt, from the data table you supplied the Tall Boy dropped from 25,000ft strikes at 1260ft/s BUT at an angle of 16 degrees. While the table does not specify this it must be 16 degrees from vertical. Thus we have a right triangle where 1260 is the hypotenuse. This resolves itself into two motions a vertical (y) and a horizontal (x) velocity. Using trig functions: sin(16) = x / 1260 or x = 347ft/s (236 mph) and cos(16) = 1211ft/s (826 mph) which is still supersonic. However,
In John Ellis book "One Day in a very Long War",: Tallboy was designed to be dropped from an optimal altitude of 18,000 ft at a forward speed of 170 mph. Impacting at 750 mph . Not supersonic
Hi Wuzak,
I'm curious. Since the Lancaster hauled the largest payload in the ETO, what possible difference could it have made what altitude the Tallboy was made to drop from? The ONLY imporant thing here is what altitude it WAS dropped from. If 18,000 feet was it, then that was the best that could be done unless the ETO suddenly acquired B-29's, which it never did.
Not arguing here ... just saying, if there is no platform to carry the thing to 30,000 feet, then what possible use is it to say the design altitude was 30,000 feet? It's like saying "My cheating wife would have remained true to me if only she hadn't cheated" or "maybe I'll have a beer ..."
The claim is pointless, even if accurate.
I WILL have a beer now. Cheers!
mhuxt, from the data table you supplied the Tall Boy dropped from 25,000ft strikes at 1260ft/s BUT at an angle of 16 degrees. While the table does not specify this it must be 16 degrees from vertical. Thus we have a right triangle where 1260 is the hypotenuse. This resolves itself into two motions a vertical (y) and a horizontal (x) velocity. Using trig functions: sin(16) = x / 1260 or x = 347ft/s (236 mph) and cos(16) = 1211ft/s (826 mph) which is still supersonic. However,
In John Ellis book "One Day in a very Long War",: Tallboy was designed to be dropped from an optimal altitude of 18,000 ft at a forward speed of 170 mph. Impacting at 750 mph . Not supersonic
Hi Mike,
Whay I am saying simply is that if you consider the vertical component alone, then you will misss horizontally by some amount since the horizontal velocity is NOT constant. Probably not by too much, but easily enough to negate a LOT of damage from 15,000+ feet.
This all assumes ONE bomb is dropped.
Mike - the 'hypotenuse' is the actual velocity vector.. and if the target had an inclination of 16 degrees perfectly normal to the velocity vector the impact velocity would be the same as the velocity vector
Would any free falling bomb pass through the sound barrier if dropped from within the atmosphere? Or would the shock waves make a natural limit?