Yes it depended on the variant. Boost rating mattered too.
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The Spit V was optimized to fight over 20,000ft, the FW190 under, the standard Spit V was outclassed by the 190 but Supermarine cut the wings down and RR developed the Merlin 50 engine and the MkV LF, Low Flight was born.
The 20mm ammunition supplied to 1 wing was made in a new factory at St Mary's west of Sydney and was out of spec, the cannons also didn't have heaters, combined this caused the stoppages.
I did a quick check on the results from "Operation Pedestal" . The 32 Sea Hurricanes accounted for between 16 to 18 kills, including 8 or 9 tough well protected JU 88s. The 10 Martlet II s, armed with 6x .50 scored 2 to 4 kills. The Sea Hurricane had a performance advantage as well but seemed to do just fine with the 8 x .303s. There was one Sea Hurricane 1C armed with 4 x 20 mm that got some kills.
How many Zeros were in Operation Pedestal?
The Spit V was optimized to fight over 20,000ft, the FW190 under ...
Agreed. Several of the top Japanese aces claimed they used this method frequently.Like all discussions of this sort, it all depends on the engagement scenario. If the target is non-manoeuvering (and, frankly, most fell into that category) then the tactic is entirely valid. It's not appropriate for a snap shot take during high g manoeuvres.
Service intro for Vc was March / April 1942.Yes but there were still plenty of Vb around in 1942
Keeping in mind that victory claims are not the same as verified destruction,
If you wanted to seriously compare the operational successes of Martlets to Sea Hurricanes it would probably be best to do it on a per-sortie basis or per encounter / combat basis.
I think we can agree there were zero Zeros. But apparently there were only ten Martlets so it's not much of a comparison for those either. The convoy was rather badly devastated with the aircraft carrier (or CVE) HMS Eagle sunk plus 3 warships and 9 transports sunk and 34 aircraft lost so it's not exactly a rousing success. It did get the job done though.
Be interesting to add the Shoot Down Records of the other European Theater
The 20mm ammunition supplied to 1 wing was made in a new factory at St Mary's west of Sydney and was out of spec, the cannons also didn't have heaters, combined this caused the stoppages.
There were also plenty of Hurricanes IIB, Brewster Buffalo's and Tomahawks with unreliable 0.50 and a considerable number of other aircraft of an earlier vintage in early 1942 particularly in the desert.Yes but there were still plenty of Vb around in 1942
AS far as I understand, someone please correct me if I am wrong, the M2 did not lend itself well to synchronization, with a 50% reduction in rate of fire.Tomahawks I think were pretty good with their (nose mounted) .50 cal armament as guns go, the early Kittyhawks though were a bit of a problem.
AS far as I understand, someone please correct me if I am wrong, the M2 did not lend itself well to synchronization, with a 50% reduction in rate of fire.
AS far as I understand, someone please correct me if I am wrong, the M2 did not lend itself well to synchronization, with a 50% reduction in rate of fire.
The 50 BMG rate of fire was reduced when synchronized but not near 50%. When Shortround6 sees this he will probably give us nearly the exact rate of fire, but seems like it was around 500 rounds per minute. Whatever it was, the Russians P39's seemed to do ok with only 2 50's and the 37mm or 20mm. Dauntless SBD's also did ok with only 2 synchronized 50's bringing down several 4 engine Japanese float planes as well as Kates, Vals and the occasional Zero.That's true but in the movie Red Tails P40's blew up a warship with a squirt of .50's and Me262's exploded into balls of flames after a few hit's while other less effective rounds like the MG 108 30mm's merely scratched the paintwork in return.