Re: Red Baron Pt. 99

ewd...@ece.concordia.ca writes:

> Ool <ulr...@t-online.de> wrote:
> : <ewd...@ece.concordia.ca> wrote in message news:8tl111$491$7...@newsflash.concordia.ca...
>
> : They did?  Well, I only sort of scanned the article about the German
> : planes--maybe I misread the purpose of the synchronization device in
> : that one, too.
> Germans did indeed invent a synchro, which allowed them to shoot through
> the propeller.

Technically just an blocker that stopped the bold travelling forward
at inappropriate time.


>  Allies took alot longer to get one.

Did the allies use synchro? My aviation history book claims that only
the germans used it.


> :  I can understand a propeller could be built to with-
> : stand the odd bullet, but isn't there a non-negligible danger in that
> : of stray ricochets backfiring at plane and pilot?
>
> So... either they had an observer shooting, say in a rear turret...

All of them. At the begin of the war. Expensive in personnel and bad
at aiming.


> or then had a high gun, mounted on top of the top wing (usually).

Brits. They also used an barrel through the hollow propeller axle.


> Some people had guns shooting through the propeller with armour plated
> blades.

French. Invented by Roland Garros. Only after his landing behind enemy
lines did the germans find out about the idea. Anthony Fokker then
came up with the better synchro idea.


> Yes, there is a danger of being killed by your own bullet's ricochet.

Actually the "armor" was an deflector, that knocked the bullet onto an
side-/up-ways track, away from the plane.

ob-ascii scematic:
                              A
     _____________            |
                  ]     __    |//|
          -->     ]    [__) --/( )
     _____________]          /_|/



> However when life expectancy is 2 weeks, does it make that much of a
> difference?

That would be average, mainly dragged down by newbie pilots killed in
first contact. If they survived 1 month they usually survived the
entire war (at least that was so in WWII).

BTW: The Red Baron was shot down on 21. April 1918 flying an Fokker
DrI triplane, no 425/17.


> : Pretty soon then I may get forced to cancel the strip on charges of
> : recklessly misleading the public, or something...

You are within historic fact, even chosing the right side for the synchro.



--
Neil Franklin, nei...@franklin.ch.remove http://neil.franklin.ch/
Nerd, Geek, Hacker, Unix Guru, Sysadmin, Roleplayer, LARPer, Mystic

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