Author Topic: spits wings (Read 1046 times)

Squire · « **Reply #15 on:** May 16, 2007, 11:32:05 AM »

I think you mean the 2:12 mark, im assuming you mean the D-9 being downed.

...yes, I think we can all agree some a/c took more damage than others, sure, and many did take a beating and come home, but then again, they do in AH too, for all the complaints of weak wings, we get the same # of cries of "rubber bullets" ect, "the 20mm is too weak", "the 50 is under modelled" ect ect ect...

Angus · « **Reply #16 on:** May 16, 2007, 04:09:58 PM »

The Jug is in Real Life one rugged bird though. Hence also heavy.
The Spit is in the light park, but the wing was absolutely brilliant, - while light it was strong, and elliptical as well for less lift-induced drag.
I have seen pictures of beaten up Spits that landed and still looked a lot worse than that P-47 by the way. But the worst wreck that delivered an operable pilot (in some days) was a P47. (that I have seen)
Same goes with AH as the real world, - hit well and close, - and luckym,- and your foe goes down. I have acturally landed some 5+ kills in a C.202 without finishing the ammo........

Stoney74 · « **Reply #17 on:** May 16, 2007, 06:16:58 PM »

Not trying to be obtuse...

The clip at the 4 minute and whatever I said mark shows a hole that was made by a large caliber flak round, right in the middle of the wing of that Jug.

Just an observation from your post and film--could a lot of those catastrophic explosions in the wing root come from the cannon ammo detonating? I don't know much about the Spits wing spar construction, but I don't think those wings were popping off from merely the German cannon rounds--looked like a secondary type of explosion--maybe?

Karnak · « **Reply #18 on:** May 16, 2007, 11:05:11 PM »

Quite possibly. One of the few places they put armor on the Spitfire was in front of the cannon ammo bins. They probably decided to spend the weight there for some quantifiable reason and not just randomly.

Squire · « **Reply #19 on:** May 17, 2007, 09:57:39 AM »

Then again most 43-45 fighters had cannon, did they armor them? I dont know.

I would guess it was a combination of not wanting the ammo to cook off and not wanting an errant bullet to damage the belt/gun system causing a jam or malfunction?

I have never heard of any pilots complaining that ammo would "cook off" when taking fire, mainly they were concerned about fuel tank fires, and being hit themselves in the cockpit.

I admitt I just dont know enough about it.

My guess is that in a non ground attack fighter ala IL-2, it wasnt practicle to add too much armor for such things, as the weight becomes counter productive. In the end, fighters being it by cannon/mg fire are going to go down. Thats just war.

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Charge · « **Reply #20 on:** May 17, 2007, 11:15:18 AM »

Spit had an interesting main spar in its wing. It was constructed of many rectangular steel tubes inside the other so that it was not a solid piece which would simply snap if loaded too much, but its behavior was more like that of a spring and it would take lots of load, bend, but not snap.

Just a FYI.

-C+