[ARC5] Another Nav Story from the Med

Wed Dec 31 21:37:56 EST 2014

Gun ships have side firing weapons so they can stay on station and on target
until the target(s) are gone.  The A-10 is designed to engage armor and its
sighting system leaves little to be desired. Firing a single round produces
a 10,000 lb. force, slightly more than half of the takeoff thrust of the
A-10s engines. A short 1 or 2 sec. burst at 4K rounds per minute will slow
the aircraft a few knots.  The 30mm cannon is very deadly and accurate, if
you don't believe it, recall the "highway of death" from the first gulf war.
The M-134 gun depicted in Predator could not have been hand held (4000
Rounds/min , 7.62 NATO ( .308 win) round, imagine that! At one time, I did
work on a portable power system for the M-134 to give it portability in the
field.  It used a NiCad for the peak current draw from the motor (28VDC
@50A), with a Li-ion pack to keep the NiCad charged.  The A-10 really
replaced the A-7D, the Skyraider was gone mid-Vietnam.  The USAF A-7Ds did
have a 30mm gun pod, but it was extremely unpopular with the operators!

Scott W7SVJ

-----Original Message-----
From: ARC5 [mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Brooke Clarke
Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2014 7:11 PM
Cc: ARC-5 Maillist
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Another Nav Story from the Med

Hi:

If you read the history of Gunships it was during the later part of W.W.II
that someone developed the idea that forward facing guns on planes were far
inferior to side facing guns.  This was in connection with AAF planes trying
to sink subs.  They got one chance and after however many minutes it took to
make a full turn and try again the sub was so deep the plane could not harm
it. The A-10 that replaced the A-1 Skyraider used a forward facing gun along
the centerline of the plane, it should have been firing out of the left wing
tip.

Nothing happened in W.W.II and for some reason during the Korean conflict,
but in Vietnam "Spooky" C-47 and later C-130 cargo planes (fighters can not
carry the weight of ammo needed) were used in a pylon turn.  Motorized
Gatling guns and 
recoil less rifles were used.   The Gatling gun in the movie Predator had
heavy electrical cables running down Arnold's 
pants leg to power the motor.

Mail_Attachment --
Have Fun,

Brooke Clarke
http://www.PRC68.com
http://www.end2partygovernment.com/2012Issues.html
http://www.prc68.com/I/DietNutrition.html
Dennis Monticelli wrote:
> Robert,
>
> That 75mm in the nose was a worthy experiment that didn't work well in 
> practice because of the reasons you stated.  The crew didn't like it 
> and wished for a nose full of 50's instead.  One story I read was of a 
> B-25 that made a pass at a small German frigate in the ET and scored a 
> bulls eye that set the ship to sinking.  The astonished pilot broke 
> the stunned silence by saying to the loader and co-pilot: "Nothing 
> happened here.  I won't say anything if you don't."
>
> Dennis AE6C
>
> On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 8:14 AM, Robert Eleazer 
> <releazer at earthlink.net>
> wrote:
>
>> In the Med in WWII they received some B-25G's that were equipped with 
>> a 75MM cannon.  The cannon was fired by the pilot but manually 
>> loaded.  Since that version of the B-25 had no Nav/Bomb position, the 
>> Navigator position was relocated to behind the pilots, which is where 
>> the 75MM gun breech was located.  Since the Navigator supposedly did 
>> not have much to do they also put him in charge of loading the gun 
>> (the most useless things in the USAAF were said to be the altitude 
>> above you, the runway behind you, the gas still down in the fuel truck on
the ground and a Navigator).
>>
>> On the first missions using the 75MM gun they quickly found that it 
>> did not fire fast enough to be able to hit much of anything.  
>> Following one mission in which they fired away at a target without 
>> effect, the pilot having worked the poor Nav nearly to death loading 
>> the gun as fast as he could, the highly irritated pilot decided to 
>> give up and asked the Nav for a course for home.
>>
>> The exhausted Navigator, stripped to the waist, sweating profusely in 
>> the low altitude Med heat, replied, "Fly West Pilot, fly West."
>>
>> The pilot replied that "Fly West" was not a proper response and 
>> demanded a specific course.  The Nav went back to his plotting table, 
>> consulted his maps and replied, "Don't fly West, Pilot.  Fly 270
degrees."
>>
>> I think the later B-25H model introduced a 75MM gun with automatic 
>> loading.  They pretty much still could not hit anything with it, but 
>> I'll bet they got lost less often.
>>
>> Wayne
>>
>>
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