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A little historical stuff for the day...

By The Armorer on December 14, 2005 | | Comments (14)

Hey - old airplane guys - izzit me, or is this just a cool picture? A-12 Shrikes in the Phillipines before WWII.

Heh. Anti-aircraft gunnery... the hard way. I really find it interesting that they kept their pantel (panoramic telescope, used for laying the gun for direction, 'dial sight' to a Commonwealth soldier) on the gun (the thing sticking up in front of the guy crewing the piece). There *is* a way you could use that sight to reflect lead... but a ring-and-bead sight would be better.

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Last, but not least... ain't tanks a mighty fine thing? As long as they're yours?
And is it just me - but given the range and power of the 120mm gun, don't they seem to have very thin barrel walls?

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Don't forget to Vote For Us! We're not gonna catch those punk El-Tees at The Officer's Club unless you guys quit voting for Matty (who is untouchable at this point) but we're neck and neck with that Lawyer at Intel Dump.

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14 Comments

By J.M. Heinrichs on December 14, 2005 8:27 AM
So, the A-12 "Shrike" is the successor to the A-10, nicht wahr? As for the barrel thickness on a M1: it's a smoothbore, thus there is little drag on the projectile, it goes down the barrel faster, thus with reduced pressure, therefore thick barrel walls are unnecessary. Tres simple! Cheers
 
By cw4(ret)billt on December 14, 2005 8:35 AM
One of the old airplane guys, checking in. Oh. "Old" referring to *airplane.* %$#@! I always get into trouble with those indeterminate adjectives...
 
By John of Argghhh! on December 14, 2005 8:36 AM
Yes, that *is* nicht wahr. And I don't care about the interior ballistics... it *still* looks thin!
 
By Masked Menace© on December 14, 2005 9:02 AM
Hey, as of 9am Central, your up by 5 votes over Intel Dump: 532-527
 
By John of Argghhh! on December 14, 2005 9:21 AM
By my accounting... that's neck and neck. 'Specially since Phil isn't even trying...
 
By Masked Menace© on December 14, 2005 12:00 PM
Oh, it's still counts as neck and neck, but when I voted yesterday, you were behind 20-30 votes.
 
By cw4(ret)billt on December 14, 2005 12:31 PM
The absentee ballots I sent to some of the guys in the Sandbox are finally getting here, evidently. The voters have been kind of busy...
 
By Mudpuppy1975 on December 14, 2005 4:45 PM
Thin tube massave breach and chamber assy. APFSDS-T is out the end of the tube (pipe) at approx 1600 meters per second. The tube is thick enough to withstand the pressure and thin enough not to impart too much gravity induced bending and flexing.
 
By Justthisguy on December 15, 2005 12:06 AM
Dang! Many thanx for the A-12 pix! I have some drawings of the plane in an old Model Airplane News; always thought it cool-looking if not practical. Had dispensers for light frag bombs between the cockpits, as I recall. These must be the later versions; they started out with big Curtiss liquid-cooled V-12s. That was back when Curtiss-Wright still sorta listened to their engineers (somewhat). On that other pic: Problems of quick slew/traverse and elevating aside, I wonder if the equilibrator and suchlike homeostatic parts of the piece were up to shooting at that angle. Well, they were trying, I guess, and let the enemy aviators know they were appreciated.
 
By MCPO Airdale on December 15, 2005 12:15 PM
Where, Oh Where is the Brewster Buffalo??
 
By cw4(ret)billt on December 15, 2005 12:59 PM
A lot of the Buffs went to Finland. And the Finns loved 'em ...
 
By MajMike on December 15, 2005 4:37 PM
thin walls? you callin me a "needle dick", dick? plenty thick enough (in tube ballistics is the crux) and that bit about thermal and bending --- yeah, what he said!
 
By John of Argghhh! on December 15, 2005 4:48 PM
Thin walls 'round a large bore. Settle down, tanker-boy...
 
By Justthisguy on December 17, 2005 1:55 PM
Oh yeah the Finns did; but they did not have to load them down with a half-ton of USN-inflicted equipment, nor land them on carriers and distort the living poo out of the landing gear so that it would never again retract all the way. I also seem to recall reading somewhere that the Finns replaced the wings on some of them with wooden replicas made from that excellent Finnish birch plywood and spruce: Much smoother and more efficient, just like an old wooden Mooney or Bellanca.
 
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