shoot downs in AvA

[pembquist]

I think you'll find that if you shoot at me in the AVA that your weapons will be incredibly effective. I did have 2 kills with the 110 which says a lot about its armament and the quantity of ammunition that it carries.  I thought the RL Hurricane was constructed of steel tube truss with fabric covering and later aluminum wing skins.  I would think it would be more robust underfire than a wooden monocoque like the mossie as the chance of hitting non redundant load bearing structure would be lower in the hurricane.  I also recollect that the fuselage truss had pinned joints so you could remove a member and replace it without welding.  The weirdest thing about the british planes in AVA is the lack of a pressure carb.  Can you imagine actually fighting in the battle of france and having your engine cut out when you started diving without rolling?  If any of you guys read I would recommend "Piece of Cake" by Derek Robinson which gives a less romantic version of the battle of britain then most fiction/movies.

[Krusty]

You might be thinking of the older Gladiator frame, or the ancient Swordfish...

While the Hurricane did have a tube frame, that's not the only thing it had. The forward tubes were hidden under the metal skin. The aft tubes had to supply not only rigidity but structures. They had to prevent sagging (if the tail sags, all of a sudden the stabilizers are at a different angle, cables sag and all of a sudden elevators no longer work, etc). They had to withstand Gs and violent manuvers as well as hard landings.

It's not like they were just a hollow box frame. For example:



To show you how busy the inside of this thing was:



The outer ribs actually were part of the reinforcements:



I don't know about you, but that's a LOT of stuff for a cannon round to hit, and it's so densely packed that any cannon round will do a lot of damage.

Whether that damage meant the tail came off, or the tail stayed on -- that's another story (i.e. B17s were known to make it back with astounding damage, same might be true for Hurricanes). However, I doubt the myth that "rounds passed through the fabric tail" or "failed to detonate in the soft wood" -- there's too much for that to happen IMO. Too much to go wrong with any amount of damage.

There's a reason everybody switched to metal skin. It was stronger and took up less space and weight in most cases.


EDIT: But this is all a side-track to the original post... Sorry.

[Vinkman]

You might be thinking of the older Gladiator frame, or the ancient Swordfish...

While the Hurricane did have a tube frame, that's not the only thing it had. The forward tubes were hidden under the metal skin. The aft tubes had to supply not only rigidity but structures. They had to prevent sagging (if the tail sags, all of a sudden the stabilizers are at a different angle, cables sag and all of a sudden elevators no longer work, etc). They had to withstand Gs and violent manuvers as well as hard landings.

It's not like they were just a hollow box frame. For example:

(Image removed from quote.)

To show you how busy the inside of this thing was:

(Image removed from quote.)

The outer ribs actually were part of the reinforcements:

(Image removed from quote.)

I don't know about you, but that's a LOT of stuff for a cannon round to hit, and it's so densely packed that any cannon round will do a lot of damage.

Whether that damage meant the tail came off, or the tail stayed on -- that's another story (i.e. B17s were known to make it back with astounding damage, same might be true for Hurricanes). However, I doubt the myth that "rounds passed through the fabric tail" or "failed to detonate in the soft wood" -- there's too much for that to happen IMO. Too much to go wrong with any amount of damage.

There's a reason everybody switched to metal skin. It was stronger and took up less space and weight in most cases.


EDIT: But this is all a side-track to the original post... Sorry.

My missunderstanding. I had always thought the original Hurris had a frame made of wood. Th esteel tubes woud indeed be prettty tough. .30 calibers would be a wate of time hitting that.