Help with understanding a deflection shot?

[GrauGeist]

No, NO, No,

they were there to ruin the climb and take up valuable fuel space.

Unless you removed the nose armor and moved stuff around the innards...

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Dear lord, another sighting!

 

[drgondog]

That was from the memoirs of about 80 y.o. man, so his "just before" can be interpreted widely.
I see your point. Just not sure about 300 feet, since it depends on the firing distances, isn't it. Muzzle velocity is many times higher than the target speed and those pilots learned to fire at the closest range possible.

No. My comment was limited to target travel every second. The 300 feet was only to illustrate how far the target travels at 200mph. For a skeet shooting analogy for 'sustained lead', the shotgun 'rotates' at an angular velocity to maintain a specific lead which combines target travel and shot velocity/time with the nose of the target as the focus.

The greater distance combined with muzzle to target time of flight forces a greater 'sustained' lead beyond 300 feet.

 

[MIflyer]

This manual may help:

 

[eagledad]

Here is a manual of fighter gun harmonization, dated 1945.

eagledad

 

[PlasticHero]

I have a book called Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering by Robert Shaw available on "the big river" website. This is FULL of detail on how planes dogfight from WWI to the late 80's. It goes into 1v1, multiple, and move-countermove. If you're like me, you will end up zooming your hands around to follow his descriptions and drawings.

 

[Akuma]

Non-aviator here--I'm writing about a P-39 over the South Pacific in WWII. In a steep bank, the pilot began firing on a Nakajima B5N from "a 90 degree deflection and closed in to 10 degrees". He scored a hit and the enemy aircraft went down in flames. Can someone explain this description to me? I assume a 90% defection would have required much skill (the pilot would have shot ahead of the target by estimating its distance and speed)? What would this have looked like from the pilot's perspective and also from the Kate's perspective?

The pilot destroyed three other enemy aircraft that day as well--one a Zeke that he attacked by firing a 10 degree deflection shot at a range of 200 yards, another, a Zeke-type, that he attacked by firing a 5 degree deflection shot at a range of 200 yards closing to 50 yards, and the last, a Tony that he overtook and in a rear attack, managed a 30 degree deflection shot.

Many thanks.

Just because it did not happen doesn't mean it couldn't happen. When writing fiction the important thing is to keep it plausible even if it's not historical fact. A pilot by name of Hans Joachim Marseille served in the Luftwaffe during the North Africa campaigns. He had the ability to not only lead an airplane but could actually have his sight obscured by his airplane's nose cowling and still hit what he was aiming at. This was not a one off, but was reported time and again by fellow pilots who were watching. Obviously such skill is rare to the point that people would not want to believe it. It is a truism that reality can be stranger than fiction.