[Milsurplus] The end of milsurplus on eBay?

[Joe Connor]

You're right, Mike. The Air Corps commanders bragged that the Norden bombsight could put a pickel in a barrel from 20,000 feet. When we got into the war, however, we weren't dropping pickels or aiming at barrels. The Air Corps insisted that we were doing precision daylight bombing and criticized the British for engaging in carpet bombing. Well, daylight was accurate, but precision wasn't.  
Joe Connor 


    On Monday, December 7, 2015 7:30 PM, Michael Bittner <mmab at cox.net> wrote:
 
 

 Yes, the vaunted Norden bomb sight was hopelessly overrated during the war. 
Carpet bombing was the only way of being reasonably sure of hitting the 
intended industrial or military target.  We've all seen the stock footage 
shown in countless WWII movies of B-17 and B-24 raids over Germany where the 
bombs are landing in the towns, the orchards, the Danube river and 
everyplace else in addition to the target.

Don't blame the dumb bombs for inaccuracy, its where and when they are 
released that matters  One of the first tests of the prototype GPS was to 
drop six dumb iron bombs from a modified ex-Blue Angel F4 Phantom flying 
level at 10,000 ft above the target which was a 30 ft diameter circle on the 
desert floor.  The F4 made six passes and all six bombs landed within the 
circle.  Moreover, the distribution of the bombs within the circle 
correlated with their wing stations on the F4.  Obviously a highly 
controlled test and not combat conditions, but still impressive.

Mike, W6MAB
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brooke Clarke" <brooke at pacific.net>
To: <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, December 07, 2015 1:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] The end of milsurplus on eBay?


> Hi Eugene:
>
> The Norden bomb sight was a marketing win rather than an actual thing that 
> was important.
> It used a DC motor with carbon brushes that contaminated the bearings and 
> overall was not that accurate, which is the case for all dumb bombs.
> http://www.prc68.com/I/Gyroscopes.html#AC_Power
>
> -- 
> Have Fun,
>
> Brooke Clarke


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