Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
Well how bout just an angle switch on non dive bombers that would prohbit drops beyond a certain dive angle say 20 degrees?
Because it's not that simple, Grunherz. The problem isn't the dive angle alone, but on the geometry of the bomb bay, how the plane is maneuvering, and the design of the bomb shackles. The B-17, which mounted its bombs on more-or-less vertical racks within a very short section of the bomber, needs to have the bombs fall perpendicular to the centerline of the bomber in order to make it out through the doors; the uppermost bombs have to fall more than six feet vertically before they leave the plane:
On the other hand, the Lancaster's bomb bay is a shallow recess running the length of the plane; bombs are slung in a single layer on the underside of the upper surface of the bay, which is only deep enough for the bay doors to close over the bombs:
Clearly, just on bomb-bay geometry, the Lancaster can drop its bombs from much more extreme attitudes than the B-17 can.
The next question depends on the way that the bomb shackles are designed. Obviously they are designed to release when the bomb falls straight away from the shackle, but depending on the design of the shackle, a release from 30° off vertical might not release properly. Virgil R. Marco Sr., 366BS Tail Gunner, 305BG, recounts an incident where his B-17 made a sudden pitch-down to avoid another aircraft that caused all but one of the 500-lb bombs they carried to release from their shackles, leaving two bombs piled up on the bottom of the bomb bay. So it's clear that the bombs were not
thatsecurely fastened in the bay, but the actual release angle limits depend severely on the mechanical layout.
Then there's the aircraft's maneuvering. A plane in a dive is experiencing different forces than one pulling out of a dive, and this applies to the bombs in its bomb bay; if a plane is pulling enough positive Gs to make the bomb path out of the bay 'vertical' relative to the bay, then the drop should function normally.
On the whole, I think that a bomber in a dive should be able to release its bombs normally
if it's pulling enough positive Gs in pitch-up maneuvering to compensate for the dive angle; this could easily be reduced to a table for each bomber. Also, negative-G maneuvers should have a chance to either release bombs from their shackles or jam them so that they can't be released; this would put additional limits on a buff driver's ability to throw their plane around the sky.
