Rising Sun warbirds

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syscom3 said:
Having zero convergence meant that they had a concentrated stream of bullets going out several hundred yards. There was no issue of only a few hitting the target due to dispersal.
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And the guys noted, flying both aircraft with a convergence and zero convergence easily adapted, mainly by getting as close as possible to the target and blasting away. In the 38 some aces actually used the .50s as a "feeler" and when they started getting hits they let go with the 20mm....
 
Two things,

1, I have only heard of P-38s in relation to Bong in fact its mentioned in many of the excerpts about him.

2, I've seen interviews of MaGuires an Linchs wing men telling about kills being made at ~1mile with that focused firepower.

wmaxt
 
wmaxt said:
I've seen interviews of MaGuires an Linchs wing men telling about kills being made at ~1mile with that focused firepower.

wmaxt
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I find that impossible to believe. At one mile those bullets and cannon shells are spent and have deviated far from their trajectories. The dispersion at that range, even firing with a year 2005 computer assisted gunsite you would still miss.
 
Convergence doesn't only work on the horizontal plane, it works in the vertical too. So you CAN have convergence issues with planes like a P-38, Bf-110 or a Bf-109.

Bullets dont just go straight out and then drop away in a curve. The fly in a defined ballistic arc, intially passing above the sightline then curving fallling through and below the sightline. Even a heavy, high velocity round like a 12.7x99 is going to travel in a curve, even if the trajectory is described as 'flat'. Flat is a relative term.

So if you have your guns on your P-38 or 109 set to converge at 150 meters targets beyond this are going to take some adjustment nose up, and targets closer than this may take some adjustments nose down.

A Mk 108 round, having worse intial velocity and aerodynamics than a 12.7 or 20mm round is obviously going to have a much more pronounnced arc.
 
Its just my preference to have the firepower somehwat proportionate between the inner wings and the nose. Im sure im gonna catch alot of crap for it, but thats me.
 

Its deffinatly hard to believe but I would not be surprised if it did happen. You aim your shots right and fire ahead of a traget you could walk them into your target. Well thats not the way I mean to put it though.... Basically it is possible is what I am tryign to say.
 
It is possible, but highly improbable. The velocities of the bullets would have dropped off to the point where they wouldnt have much energy IF they hit something. Plus the normal dispersion of the bullet stream would mean only a few would hit anything.
 
And it was also impossible for a P-38 to turn inside a zero under 300 knots and yet the likes of McGuire, Bong and Lynch accomplished this on numerous occasions with dozens of witnesses - these guys weren't the "Averave Joe."

Could it be done? - possibly. Was it done? Ask their wingmen!
 
"Average Joe" FB? Oh, an average you! Oh...that was bad...I haven't had alcohol in two weeks!
 
No, two weeks ago I injured myself while very drunk and the wounds have only just healed up. To put it simply, I had a fight with the road and the road won. That...and I'm all out of money so I've been working 12 hours a day to get some. Friday night here I come...!
 

Well sorry to hear that, hope you're felling better - have a pint for me Friday night and remember, the road is always going to win!
 
I know. It was an obvious case of street crime. Oh no...I did it again.
 
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