...but post-raid reconnaissance demonstrated the bombers were putting only 24% of their bombs to within 1,000 yards of their targets...
It seems that accuracy has a relative meaning. Compared to previous bombing systems, 1000 yards was "accurate"; while 75 feet was "incredible". For a modern laser guided bomb, 75 feet means that pilot was flying drunk.
As Wikipedia states, Norden bombsight helped find the real airspeed and the windspeed to compensate those factors; also the ballistic data of the bomb was taken in account. "Ballistic data" refers to terminal velocity and drag (in theory, all the bombs are made equal so they will behave equal).
The fact that the body of the bomb moves through air means that it have some drag, and the fins add more drag. That is equal in every bomb.
The snake eye is a special case, it is specially designed to have high drag when launched: the bomb is launched at low altitudes; if the bomb was not braked, the plane will surely be damaged by the explosion. Other special cases would be some parachute retarded bombs (i.e. the Tzar bomb), but it is not relevant, the question was about a "normal" bomb.
Since before World War II, the methods to improve accuracy of free fall bombs are two: "accelerating" the bomb through dive bombing (less flying time means that it will be less deviated by wind), and improved bomb sights. Modern fighters use computers to calculate where the bomb will fall, but a bomb dropped from 30,000 feet still have too much time to deviate from intended target.
I was there, too
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!
Comments
It seems that accuracy has a relative meaning. Compared to previous bombing systems, 1000 yards was "accurate"; while 75 feet was "incredible". For a modern laser guided bomb, 75 feet means that pilot was flying drunk.
As Wikipedia states, Norden bombsight helped find the real airspeed and the windspeed to compensate those factors; also the ballistic data of the bomb was taken in account. "Ballistic data" refers to terminal velocity and drag (in theory, all the bombs are made equal so they will behave equal).
The fact that the body of the bomb moves through air means that it have some drag, and the fins add more drag. That is equal in every bomb.
The snake eye is a special case, it is specially designed to have high drag when launched: the bomb is launched at low altitudes; if the bomb was not braked, the plane will surely be damaged by the explosion. Other special cases would be some parachute retarded bombs (i.e. the Tzar bomb), but it is not relevant, the question was about a "normal" bomb.
Since before World War II, the methods to improve accuracy of free fall bombs are two: "accelerating" the bomb through dive bombing (less flying time means that it will be less deviated by wind), and improved bomb sights. Modern fighters use computers to calculate where the bomb will fall, but a bomb dropped from 30,000 feet still have too much time to deviate from intended target.
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!
Zup quoted the same two lines as me :)
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you have to say scope these days.
hmmmm....I have a zombie plan.....clearly I now need to develop a Mile plan as well :p
/in case of 'mile attack' break glass. ;)
Someone call Max Brooks quick....