the mosquito was a great plane. able to dart in and out. hitler ordered an equivalent that failed miserably.
Herr Pointer, a bit of possible trivia to cheer you up. Having heard the expression "The whole nine yards" I found a source years ago. It was supposed to be the length of the cartridge belt on a Spitfire. Given the approximate span of a Spitfire's wings, roughly 38 feet, many Marks, what, that would be hard to do given the guns are set outward on the elliptical wing. A 27-foot belt would have to rotate over a roller and run back. I still think it short. Somewhere, Len Deighton's "Fighter" perhaps, I read the Hurricane-Spitfires had about 14 seconds on the trigger using the .303's. I think an Ammo box or drum sounds better but would carry less capacity. Has is that for a post nobody probably wanted???? Poppy, did not the Mosquito have a significantly lower loss rate than most fighter-bombers?
Hello All, I am researching my Uncle's service as a P51B pilot in WW2. A report filed by the War Department states the he was engaged in an operational mission flying "Angus white 2". What is the meaning of the acronym "Angus white 2"? His wingman reports flying "Angus white 3". Thank you.
Thanks, there goes that myth, now whole 9 yards must be football related, well the US version of it anyway!
If that was the total length of the belts, then it would stand. But for "the pros from Dover", how many rounds did a Spit. carry per gun? I know it was less than a minute per gun, right?
My memory says about 12 seconds...it could probably hold a couple of seconds more...but 12 is the number I remember.
If MY memory is correct, they were trained to fire no more than 3 seconds and then stop and assess their results.
Ah, something wiki this way comes: Armament Guns: A wing 8 × .303 in Browning Mk II* machine guns (350 rounds per gun) B wing 2 × 20 mm Hispano Mk II (60 rounds per gun) 4 × .303 in Browning Mk II* machine guns (350 rounds per gun) C wing 4 × 20 mm Hispano Mk II cannon (120 rounds per gun) C wing (Alt.) 2 × 20 mm Hispano Mk II (120 rounds per gun) 4 × .303 in Browning Mk II* machine guns (350 rounds per gun) E wing 2 × 20 mm Hispano Mk II cannon (120 rounds per gun) 2 × .50 in M2 Browning machine guns (250 rounds per gun)
Ye Yep 2-3 seconds or you will quickly have nothing left...unless the target is filling your screen of course...then just let them have it.
OK, using the A wing, the 303 Brownings were rated at 800rpm. If they had 350 rounds each, my calculations say that they would have 26.4 seconds of firing time.
Some answers: "The 'B' wing replaced four machine guns with two Hispano 20mm cannon, firing at about 600rpm (but throwing explosive shells, so much more lethal). Originally the cannon were fed from 60-round drums giving six seconds of firing time, but this was quickly changed to a 120-round belt feed - so you had ~12 seconds total with everything firing, with a few seconds more of four machine guns alone." "A Spitfire MKI and II had eight (8) Browning .303 machine guns, each with 300 rounds and a rate of fire, when sustained, at 1,150 rounds per minute. A total weight of 2,400 rounds was carried. Each gun delivered about 19 rounds per second, so 152 rounds per second total.
"Angus White" would have been the radio call sign of the day for a particular flight of 4 aircraft. Angus White 2 would be the wing position off the flight leader (Angus White 1). Angus White 3 would be the 2nd element leader and Angus White 4 would be on his wing.
I've heard "the whole nine yards" meaning the belted .50-caliber on American fighters. Don't know if it's true, but a 400-round belt would be about nine yards long.
So "Angus" would be the squadron call sign for the day and "Angus White", "Angus Blue" etc. flights, 3-4 in a squadron?
“The 350-round belt of 0.50in used in the inboard guns on each side of the M2 .50 gun system of the P-51 Mustang and P-47 Thunderbolt (four guns on the six-gun P-51, six guns on the 8-gun P-47), was exactly 27 feet, or 9 yards, in length when fully assembled.
US typically flew the "finger four" formation until things got frisky. One lead, one wing man, make a pair, two pair make a set.
US typically flew the "finger four" formation until things got frisky. One lead, one wing man, make a pair, two pair make a set.