Hauksbee

It's got everything but 'why'.

Very interesting, socrate. Thanks much.

Given the conservatism of French and British units, I'm amazed that this SPAD ever passed muster. I wonder what it took to bribe his squadron leader?

Nonsense! It worked just fine. It's called a DH.2 (well...pretty fine.)

That is definitely more 'immersion' than needed.

I just knew Widowmaker would be back among us as soon as he strapped on that Snipe!

You got it! I'm off to the DVD. . ...the deed is done. Now we wait.

He's always been fascinated with the headphones, so I put a screw-eye high up on the side of the bookcase and thought that would keep them out of harm's way. 'Seems I left too much dangle in the cords. I came home to find them both on the floor; he in full attack mode. Now, one of the two prongs that hold on the three reflectors is broken off. I could weld it on with some Gorilla Glue, but I'd lose the ability to adjust. I'm going to get a new TrackIR. If there's anyone out there who's been feeling the need to look over their shoulder, send me a PM and I'll mail this out to you and you can do the field mod.

It seems our colleges over at ROF are delving into the more arcane weapons field mods attempted in WWI. I was much impressed with the attempt at putting a 20mm on the top wing of an Albatros, but a 57mm on the nose of a Felixstowe? Now there's firepower! Never mind that neither worked out too well in reality; it's the thought that counts. The sticking point with the 57mm Davis was the backblast. I don't know what I'd do with that much firepower, but I definitely want to try the Becker on my Albatri. What follows is patched together from Wikipedia and a few other sources. The first recoilless gun was developed during WWI by Commander Cleland Davis of the US Navy. It consisted of two gun barrels pointing in opposite directions connected to a common chamber. One barrel was loaded with the projectile, the other with an equal mass of small lead shot encased in grease. The propellant cartridge was placed in the central chamber and when fired the projectile and the "countershot" shot out both ends at equal velocities, leaving the gun static with no imparted recoil. The lead shot and grease quickly dispersed and lost energy, while the service projectile proceeded on to the target. This concept was developed for use in aircraft armament for attacking submarines but never used in combat. The concept continued to be explored and soon it was realized the countershot could be eliminated, substituting the gas from the propellant as long as it was of sufficient speed and mass. The attraction of a recoilless weapon is that a much lighter light artillery piece of a given caliber can be created, as it eliminates the need for the massive recoil mechanisms required for conventional artillery. In the case of the 57mm anti-tank gun this was a huge difference. Recoilless weapons found a perfect application with airborne infantry. The major drawback is these weapons use a huge amount of propellant, four-fifths of the charge is exhausted from the jet. The back blast is also a significant hazard as well as a bright illuminating source, which gives away the position of the gun. Throughout the war years, the Royal Navy experimented extensively with the Davis gun, a recoilless rifle developed by a US Navy commander between 1911 and 1914. The Davis gun worked on the counter-shot principle, in which a mass equal to the shell is ejected to the rear upon firing. In essence, the weapon consisted of a pair of equal-length, light-weight gun tubes mounted breech to breech on a common chamber. For loading, the rear-facing, counter shot barrel could be unlocked and pivoted around a rod parallel to the axis of the gun. The round consisted of the high-explosive shell and an equal weight of lead bird shot, with the propellant charge in between. Guns were available for aircraft use in a range of calibres: 2-pounder (~40-mm cal), 6-pounder (~57-mm), 12-pounder (~76-mm), and 50-pounder (~127-mm). The guns had a muzzle-velocity of about 1200 ft/sec (370 m/sec) and an effective range of about 2000 yds (1846 m). The weapons were light, but bulky—10 ft (3.1 m) long. The 2-pounder weighed 70 lbs (32 kg), the 6-pounder 208 lbs, and the 12-pounder 208 lbs, all with mounting.

The trouble with projectors (in my experience) is that you need a completely dark room. Otherwise the color/image gets pale and washed-out. . 'Must be great, ultimat, checking back in and finding WOFF ready. Now that's the spirit of Christmas.

Nor can I...

Think of it as a work in progress.

Sounds like we should draft the lot of them as Honorary Members is the BOC? Whadda'ya think Lou?

On a similar note: ALWAYS WATCH YOUR SIX! .

Done deal.

Steady on, Lou. One "Bwoc" is sufficient. There's a good fellow. . That said, I'm all for adoption. (But who'd have me?)

What a long, strange trip it's been...

Beautiful! I want one.

Just saw an ROF posting of an Albatros D.II with a 20mm Becker cannon mounted on the top wing. That's a new one for me. He was ruining the day for three Handley-Page bombers. Anyone know about this? And why didn't it become more common? On second look, there's about four vids. . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NualC5bLeNM

Hard to say about re-loading difficulties. The Lewis magazine (if I have it right) you had to seat and twist to lock. The Becker appears to be a straight forward "Tab A in Slot B" affair, but real life can be tricky. As far as ROF has it, it seems to be a choice between cannon or MG's; probably a weight consideration. The Becker weighed 66 lbs, (30 kg). The Spandau 08 weighed 59.4 lbs. ('call it 60), but the 08/15 seems to have been pared down to 39.6 (let's say 40 lbs) or 18 kg. This is the gun body alone; no cooling jacket or water. So perhaps a single-seater like the Alb.II could loft an MG for ranging shots. (what do you think, Olham?) . The guy who posted the vids. on YouTube, Soknik01, had this to say about using the Becker (in two separate replies): It certainly won't last long if you allow the AI to gun for you. I only use it if I am gunning for myself or have a human gunner, in which case there are enough rounds to take out over a half dozen planes if you have a %30 hit accuracy. You would have to use different tactics than I did here in order to achieve anywhere near that level of accuracy tho- The only time I can consistently hit my target is when he's only a few plane lengths away from me. This means that I get shot up too- lol. Read moreShow less I'm far from an expert gunner by any measure. This video was taken over a 25 minute period with unlimited ammo. My intent was to show that an accomplished gunner could really turn the tides of a battle if there were targets available. Also wanted to emphasize that the cannon is effective from extreme range leaving you safe from retaliation. Ty for the kind comment 'Seems that a lot of practice is needed before you can simply stand off and lob single shots as we saw in the videos.

I'm confident we all know that OBD is not coming back. But I don't think that our membership is going to doggedly continue to fly OFF. We've waited for it; we'll fly it, and this will simply be 'the other WOFF site', and whatever it's going to be, we'll build it ourselves. If this is known as the place with the most interesting topics and knowledgeable people, we'll have our own following. (Not that I expect the others to wither away) I'll continue to check in at SimHQ (tho' I find the graphics repellant. Not an avatar among them) and we'll see what the WOFF Forum becomes. But when I get my morning coffee and boot up the computer, this is where I'll check in first to see who's still around.

...and fwow him to the fwoor! True, for the most part, but there is "The Calibration Test". When the bartender signals "Last Call", we require the new initiate to swagger the length of the bar. If the swagger is found wanting, we re-position the stick.

Here's probably more than you ever wanted to know about the Becker 20 mm: . When the leaders of the German Air Force, during the latter days of the first World War, ordered the placing of armor around the vital parts of their huge Gotha bombing planes, they realized that they had notonly made, the rifle-caliber machine guns of the Allies obsolete but their own as well. In order to findsome suitable weapon that would deal adequately with the situation and still not violate the St. Petersburg Treaty relating to small-bore explosive projectiles, they turned to the invention of Reinhold Becker, of Krefeld, Germany, who was then producing an aircraft cannon at his own firm, the Becker Stahlwerke at Willich am Rhein. His patent had been applied for in 1914. The Becker also served as the pattern for the famous Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, which sees service to this day. (Incidently, I find that Oerlikon is a town in Switzerland.) History, Design & development Development commenced in 1913 and was therefore already advanced when the War Ministry issued a specification in June 1915 calling for an aircraft cannon of under 37 mm caliber and 70 kg weight capable of firing a 10-round burst. Tests commenced shortly thereafter with the weapon mounted in a Gotha G.I, but proved unsatisfactory. Despite this, the potential of the gun was such that the arsenal at Spandau was engaged to help develop and fine-tune the design, leading to a production contract for 120 Becker Type M2 guns in June 1916. In addition to the orders for aircraft guns placed with Becker, Spandau and MAN also received a contract to build Becker cannon for the Army. The Spandau works developed the gun further producing it as the Spandau Type 3 20mm cannon, which was heavier and had a slower rate of fire at 250 rpm. Operational use The main types to utilise the Type M2 were large aircraft - the Friedrichshafen G.III bomber and AEG G.IVk ground-attack machine. Tests in smaller, single-engined aircraft were not so successful, but were carried out extensively through the rest of the war, commencing with an Albatros J.I in December 1917. Due to the gun's operating principles, it could not be synchronised, and this posed an immediate problem forits installation in this type of plane. The solution adopted after the tests with the Albatros J.I was to mount the gun at an angle to fire downwards. Fitting the gun to a fighter with a pusher configuration was another obvious solution, and trials were carried out with an Albatros D.VI. Other intended installations were for an AGO S.I and the Hansa (Caspar) D.I, but these were not carried out before the Armistice. Total production figures are not known, but were in excess of 539 (111 by Becker and 428 by MAN); a total of 362 were surrendered to the Allies. There are only two surviving Becker cannons, one in France from a shot-down AEG G1 and one in Washington USA. .

I had figured closer to Christmas. Keep us posted.

In the past few days, I've been digging out Wiki articles about the Mosquito raids on Oslo, Copenhagen, and others. If I were to fly such a mission, would IL-2 '46 be the Sim of choice?