Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
like the smilie Flyboy J
However if a B17 could only reasonably expected to carry 6000 lbs compared to a Lancasters load of up to a 22000 lbs Grand Slam well it does put things into perspective doesn't it....
I was wondering about that myself. With the RAF adding bomber sorties next to USAAF sorties, and the LW still having the same amount of fighter force as before, then the LW would have either to completely ignore the added bulk of bombers penetrating the airspace, or spread it's forces even more thinly.
Naturally, this would only makes sense past 1944, with the arrival of the Mustang other long-range capable escort fighters on the scene. Given what happened to heavily armed B-17s and B-24s when unescorted, things would have look bleak for the lightly armed British noctural bomb trucks - otherwise the rather numerous Nachtjagd would simple become an extremely nasty form of heavily armed daylight bomber destroyer forces... And of course, the whole thing of overloading the defenses with masses of bombers requires sufficient mass of USAAF heavies operating.
Interesting none the less, and a valid alternative to what I'd describe with Talleyrand's classic : 'was more than a crime, it was an error.
like the smilie Flyboy J
Yes i do agree with you both were effective at what they did when they got through as is anything.. By the way i do like you comparing thoes flak guns to the muskets it does make a lot of sense... Poor ba#tards.
However if a B17 could only reasonably expected to carry 6000 lbs compared to a Lancasters load of up to a 22000 lbs Grand Slam well it does put things into perspective doesn't it....
A "Daisy Cutter" is a huge bomb that can cause massive destruction.
The blast is so horrific that one of the main reasons merely for threatening its use against an enemy is psychological.
In the Gulf War, US aircraft dropped leaflets on Iraqi troops depicting a huge bomb, with the slogan "Flee and Live, or Stay and Die!"
The type depicted in the leaflets, and also used in Afghanistan, is the BLU-82B Commando Vault or Big Blue 82, also known as the Daisy Cutter.
Some say the name derives from the blast pattern it leaves when viewed from above. Others say it is a much older term for any bomb designed to cut down infantry.
According to the US Air Force, 11 of these were dropped on Iraq during the Gulf War.
They were used in the Vietnam War for creating instant helicopter landing sites in dense jungle.
Parachute descent
The bomb's warhead contains 12,600 lb (5,700 kg) of GSX, a slurry of ammonium nitrate - the basis of nitrogen fertiliser - highly flammable aluminium powder, and polystyrene-based soap as a thickener.
A Daisy Cutter is so big that it can be "launched" only by pushing it out of the open back door of a transport plane - typically the MC-130 special forces version of the Hercules is used.
The bomb descends under a stabilising parachute and is detonated just above the ground by a 38-in (97 cm) fuse, which sticks out of its nose.
When it explodes, it generates a massive pressure wave. Ordinarily, atmospheric pressure is about 100,000 pascals (the equivalent of 1kg of force applied to an area of one square cm or 14.2psi). In a Daisy Cutter explosion, the pressure reaches about 7,000,000Pa (70kg/sq cm - 1,000psi) at the centre.
The effects are felt over an area typically reported to be the size of several football pitches.
I have to point out here that RAF 2 Group were bombing during day and night through the war. They were using tight formation for mutual support since their first raid on 4th September, 1939. If the rest of Bomber Command needed training for tight formation flying - they had a whole RAF Group on hand to show them how.
Ok adler..... what about this......
Apprantly this is the most powerfull conventional bomb in the world at 30 000 lbs and filled with 18 000lbs of H6....
Anyway the green bomb is the largest Nuke ever made and the Orange one is the conventional one.....
The RAF had exceptional pilots - it wasn't flying skill per se but different acquired skills i.e. Formation leaders keeping a very steady hand on throttles to prevent an accordion effect throughout the bomb group, 'forming up' skills and procedures to speed up process of getting into tight formations (or looser in bad weather) with minimum time and fuel consumption, etc.
That's the way to do it. Lead sets a power setting and for the most part leaves it alone. (unless you need to adjust your TOT). We get hammered for jockeying power unnecessarily as lead because you're only screwing your wingmen. In a tight formation, for example parade, you are constantly making power adjustments as wing. Loose forms, such as combat cruise, are much more fluent and require less workload as wing. Flying in a tight form as a wing is draining after a while.
I don't honestly know much about the particular forms they used and practiced back then - but I imagine that there are similar to the forms we fly today.
I have done forms in single engine, multi, and in about a week or so I will be doing helo forms - which should be interesting. Can't wait to do forms in the MV-22!