Oleg Maddox's Room #1

[Igo kyu]

Originally Posted by proton45

You could be right...but wasn't wind direction (drift) one of the settings on the "Norden bombsight"? I think that the "Jet Stream" was a big issue when they tried to drop bombs over Japan...

That sounds probable. I don't know about the Norden bomb sight, but the aircraft flies in the air, so the windspeed affects the speed or track of the aircraft over the ground, you'd need to allow for that. The only time wind would affect the flight of a bomb other than in that way would be if there was significant wind shear, so the wind at altitude was in a different direction or strength than nearer the ground. It's the latter that I think is probably negligible most of the time.

I don't remember (my memory is terrible) about the jetstream being a problem over Japan. Incendiaries, which were used against Japan, would be much more affected by wind than big iron cased explosive bombs.

[Skarphol]

Hi!

I think the jetstream caused most problemes for navigating long distances over water. The existance of jetstreams was not known to the crews until quite late in the war. The pilots had never had problems with jetstreams until the B-29's started to fly very high for long periodes of time. I don't think jetstreams affected bomb aiming in any serious way once the bombers had reached their targets.

Skarphol

[proton45]

Originally Posted by Skarphol

Hi!

I think the jetstream caused most problemes for navigating long distances over water. The existance of jetstreams was not known to the crews until quite late in the war. The pilots had never had problems with jetstreams until the B-29's started to fly very high for long periodes of time. I don't think jetstreams affected bomb aiming in any serious way once the bombers had reached their targets.

Skarphol

Although I can't find any specific charts on the effect of "drift" on ordinance once dropped from the aeroplane...I don't think that they would have included an analog computer (to compute the wind "drift") in the Norden bombsite if it wasn't an important calculation. (even a miscalculation of 10 mph could mean a 170 foot bombing error at 20,000) I suppose that "wind drift" is the kind of detail that some people could find important in a "air combat sim" (and some others would like "clickable cockpits"_lol).

[Igo kyu]

Originally Posted by proton45

Although I can't find any specific charts on the effect of "drift" on ordinance once dropped from the aeroplane...I don't think that they would have included an analog computer (to compute the wind "drift") in the Norden bombsite if it wasn't an important calculation. (even a miscalculation of 10 mph could mean a 170 foot bombing error at 20,000) I suppose that "wind drift" is the kind of detail that some people could find important in a "air combat sim" (and some others would like "clickable cockpits"_lol).

Notice that the line of the drifting bombs is straight. This is because it is relative to a straight nose on view of the aircraft. If there is a cross wind, the aeroplane has to fly with it's nose toward the wind a bit, so the line it is flying along is actually the line over the bombs, but it's nose is pointed into the wind a bit, so it looks as if its not going in quite the same direction. The drift is the difference between the line the aircraft is flying along, and the direction it's nose is pointing in.

[robtek]

one thing that could be used to stop the
"jump in their Spits and 109s, tear diagonally across the field at full-bore and go looking for a T'n'B at 0 feet over the middle of the Channel, bitching because they haven't got an La7 or a FW A8 or a P51?" - players would be if the engine would react as it was then, with a seize or at least with much reduced power.

[brando]

Originally Posted by robtek

one thing that could be used to stop the
"jump in their Spits and 109s, tear diagonally across the field at full-bore and go looking for a T'n'B at 0 feet over the middle of the Channel, bitching because they haven't got an La7 or a FW A8 or a P51?" - players would be if the engine would react as it was then, with a seize or at least with much reduced power.

I couldn't agree more! While I accept that there needs to be an element of relaxed realism for the gamey d/f arenas if only to make sales, let's hope the other end of the scale is a more true rendition of the mechanical side of flight.

B