planes were loaded with the required amount of fuel needed to make the target with X amount of spare fuel for emergency's.
IE: if the target was 1 hours flight time away why take 2 hrs worth?
the plan would be loaded with 1 hours worth of fuel + 30 Min's for emergency like leeking fuel or damaged engine or another 1,000 reasons.
a Lancaster hitting a target in France would have less fuel loaded than a Lancaster hitting a target in germany.
had a discussion smiler to this about speed of a vehicle vs the speed of an object moving inside of a vehicle and this is how i explained it to him.
a train is doing 100mph
a guy walks towards the front at 10mph how fast is the guy moving relative to the ground?
answear = 110mph
a train is doing 100mph
a guy walks towards the back at 10mph how fast is the guy moving relative to the ground?
answear = 90mph
short answear to the bullet is that u either + or - the speed of the plane to the speed of the bullet depending on which way the bullet is fired.
bomber speed = 200mph
bullet speed = 800mph
fired forward bullet speed = 1000mph
fired backwards bullet speed = 600mph
now if a fighter is flying in trial doing 200mph then the impact speed is 800mph due to the forward motion of the fighter added to the speed of the bullet.
hyster, what you're describing is bullet velocity relative to the ground, not relative to another plane traveling at the same speed. It's necessary to take into account the fact that, relative to the two planes, the bullet decelerates at different rates depending on who's firing: the plane in the front, or the plane in the back. I believe this is what Krusty was trying to say.
Let's use a simple aerodynamic convention. Instead of the planes moving relative to the air, let's make the planes stationary, and consider the air as flowing past both. So, from that perspective, let's look at this again. Let's place our two planes 100 yds apart, and consider 4 examples:
1) Planes parked on runway: (
NO Wind)
a) Rear plane fires .50 BMG at front plane. Bullet leaves muzzle @ 2850 f/s and decelerates 270 f/s to 2580 f/s at impact.
b) Front plane fires .50 BMG at rear plane. Bullet leaves muzzle @ 2850 f/s and decelerates 270 f/s to 2580 f/s at impact.
Now, let's use Krusty's haul bellybutton B-24 as an example:
2) Both planes flying @ 470 f/s 100 yds apart. Just like planes parked on runway, but now there's the equivalent of a hurricane blowing from front plane to rear plane.a) Rear plane fires .50 BMG at front plane. Bullet leaves muzzle @ 2850 f/s, but because it's essentially fired into a 470 f/s head wind, it initially decelerates much more rapidly, and drops to ~2280 f/s before it impacts the front plane.
b) Front plane fired .50 BMG at rear plane. Bullet leaves muzzle @ 2850 f/s, but because it essentially fired with a 470 f/s tail wind, it initially decelerates much more slowly, and may actually hit the rear plane at a speed higher than 2850 f/s.
Krusty, you buying this?
