Originally posted by Krusty
The P39 was not a tank buster. The P63 was not a tank buster. The cannon was only good for air to air or "soft" ground targets. It was a simple HE round, not an armor-piercing round.
"The M9 was a very different weapon. The large cartridge case gave the same HE round as the M4 a considerably higher muzzle velocity. One of the types of ammunition available was a 752g armour-piercing projectile with a muzzle velocity of 930m/s, and at a distance of 460m this penetrated 6cm of armour plate. At the same distance the M4 could penetrate only 2cm of armour."The M9 in the P-63 would penetrate 2cm more armor than the typical tank buster in the IL-2, which was typically said to be able to bust through 4cm of plate. Unfortunately for the P-63, the Kingcobra was not deemed needed for the front since its performance was very close to the P-51D.
And yeah, I should have stuck to saying ground attack, not tank busting. So de-acking, bangin' up soft targets, towns...other aircraft (sorta like a pony with a cannon!). Unless of course we got the P-63D with the M9 version.
On a side note, what was the main difference between the RS-82 and 132 rockets on the IL-2? ...and tell me more about the cluster bombs that should be available for the IL-2 and the Stuka!!
