"So the question to ChrisDNT is; Did you ever observe the 20mm tracer being fired by somebody else from a bit further away, rather than co-axial with the bore? "
Of course yes.
When near the canon (again, I can only speak for the Oerlikon54, basically a WII design), either as a gunner or a loader, you don't see anything (bullets are too fast when going out of the canon tube), but after some hundred meters, you see the back of the bullets as points, NOT AS LINES. The more far the bullets are, the slower the dots are to be seen of course (quite slow I must say, nothing like the speed of a "laser"). When the canon has been firmly held, the dots build a quite concentrated sheaf (called "the dangerous zone"), but if the canon has not been firmly held, you see the dots forming what we called a "banana"
If I remember well, the first Il-2 described this aspect quite correctly.
P.S: I will try if I can find my manuals somewhere and I will also contact an old friend of mine, who was for years engineer by Oerlikon.
02-14-2011, 07:39 AM
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