ROFL Shane! & Slapshot!- I should be flattered you did not modify your thesis! I had a good air combat session with Taki et al a few weeks ago - all of it below 5K. Of course, it has to be remembered that my plane the F4U simply isn't a
mix-it-up plane in the way the N1K is or can be - a subject now being debated by Morph and g00b. I tend to agree with Morph. But my viewpoint is subject to change - upon presentation of film evidence that demonstrates otherwise.
Originally posted by MoRphEuS
Snipers in the military and sharp shooters who do this for a sport can hit a 1 foot square target with ease at over 1 mile. THATs fight sports fans... Carlos Hathcock, a marine sniper in the Viet Nam war modified an M60 machine gun so that he was able to fire only 1 round at a time. He mounted a 4 power unertl scope on the top of this monster.
From the top of a moutain he could EFFECTIVLY make 1 shot kills. Having 93 confirmed kills total for his military career. This was in no way all done with this modified 50cal machine gun. But many of those C/K's where taken with that M60... 1 Shot kills mind you. Dont underestemate the power of a 50 cal MG round. They are deadly accurate. They have a very flat trajectory in relation to cannons and more often than not a very high velocity compared to cannons.
Do a bit of research on todays new era of snipers in the military. It will BLOW your mind to find out what they are using and how effective it is. You will find a big trend with the 50cal sniper rifle.
What all that says is for a 50cal plane to land hits on you from 800+ yards out is no mirical. Its no big deal. Its the way it should be.
Morph - all understood. You finish by talking about the .50 cal round. But the N1K has only cannon, and the trajectory would drop much sooner than for a .50 cal, which would fly much better. Maybe the CHOG cannon in AH is overmodelled; even I can hit stuff with that at 600+ yards, and get kills.
I think you're missing something in your comparison with a plane armed with machine guns versus a M60 converted to single shot. Dispersion. We all know how the multiple gun platform is designed to have a convergence point at which the damage inflicted will be the greatest. I have read Col. Francis Gabreski's autobiography, and in it he mentions the awesome power of those 8x50 cal. of his P47, and their ability to shred up the enemy
if he got in close to the target. Beyond convergence range, the rounds would be diverging, and dispersion which was designed into a rapid fire weapon like a .50 cal machine gun would mean that at 800 yards, the odd lucky hit might be possible, but shearing off a con's wing would be most unlikely, especially as much of the kinetic energy would be spent by that time. As for one bullet pilot kills, maybe. But our planes had pilot armour. (I realise that Japanese WW2 fighter planes did not) So from behind, I think a pilot kill would be doubtful and an extreme fluke at 800 yards from behind.
CHOG perkage goes back before my time, but in my view the CHOG pays its own way in perks, what with all those 300' CV-suicide LANC and ju88 formations. But lately I've been finding that the F4U1D can be almost as effective, and seems to fly better - feels lighter...(?) I don't have any strong views on CHOG perkage. However, I do feel that 70pp is WAY over the top for an F4U-4.
Back on topic about N1Ks: Earlier today, I set up AH2 and did some double dweebery tests. Double dweebery because 1)I flew a N1K, and 2)I shot at the drones from 800 yards.
Obviously I am no N1K expert,
never having flown one online. But I wanted to do some gunnery tests. And I found could not get hits at 800 or even 600 yards - even cheating by zooming the view. I needed to wait until 400/200 before firing. BUT... on one test, I did get the drone trailing white smoke with a lucky 800 yard shot. From all the accounts I've read, this is much closer to reality than routinely destroying planes at 800 yards. I would have posted the film of these tests, but AH2 films are not compatible with the AH1 viewer, and I don't think there is a AH2 film viewer.
If my interpretation is correct, there's going to be the mother of all gunnery whinefests when AH2 is deployed.
