The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-01-13


For the sad fact seems to be that
while both these weapons sound
! potent to read about, they are still
, so far from perfection that today
both would have difficulty in hitting
the broad side Of O blimp hangar
door.
AIMING DIFFICULT
AT HIGH SPEEDS
| This Is not the fault of the
weapons themselves. The difficulty
Is that instead of being mounted ON
fixed positions, the weapons are
mounted on airplanes travelling at
from 200 to 400 miles an hour, and
any deviation in the course of the
plane, any movement in rough air
! or any uncalculated or uncompen-
stated vibration throws off the aim.
This Is the same difficulty expert
enced with the dive bomber. The
necessity of holding the dive bomb
ing plane on a fixed course for only
Is seconds or so before releasing
the bomb makes the plane itself
vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire.
Army Air Force and Ordnance
Department have been experiment.
ing with both airborne rocket guns
and 75-mm. airsraft guns for sew
eral years. Col. Horace A. Quinn Of
the Army Ardnance Department
was the first man in the world to
demonstrate that a high-powered
75-mm. field artillery gun could be
fired successfully from a plane. The
first installation was completed in
1888. Colonel Quinn supervised
ground tests in n Bis Douglas
medium bomber at Aberdeen Prov
ing Grounds. In extended tests be-
fore the Air Corps Board at Elgin
Field, Fla, in 1910, he operated the
range finder. Later, when the recoil
mechanism was perfected and the
new gun assembly was mounted in
a BPS, Colonel Quinn acted as
gunner In tests along the Cali
/ fornia coast In October 1912, De-
velopment of new lightweight IS
and new gun mounts for airplanes
permitted final tests with pilot
models in August 1913, when manu-
facture for the BPS was begun.
ROCKET HAS
LIMITED RANGE
The shortcomings Of the German
rocket guns mounted In pairs be-
meath the wings of German combat
planes are perhaps even greater
than those Of the rs. U. S. ordnance
men have been experimenting with
rockets, too, as borne out by their
development of the American anti
tank bazooka, so they know about
the characteristics Of these weapons.
German plane-mounted rocket
guns carry shell with an ex-
plosive charge equivalent to five
inch projectile-larger than the rs,
which is about three inches. But
the range of the rocket is limited.
The Germans claim 1000 yards,
but U. S. airmen say 1t Is less than
1000 yards. It's trajectory is ex-
tremely high. It's velocity Is at first
/, slow, but it gains speed as the
rocket discharge delivers more
momentum. 1t is therefore not as
accurate as a high velocity shell.
A rocket shell lobbed into the
center of close formation Of bomb
ers at short range Is. however,
nothing to laugh of. Its high ex-
plosives charge throws pieces Of
jagged metal in all directions and
they will tear holes in anything
they are lucky enough to hit.
But the rockets disadvantages
make 1t possible to overcome its
threat. The rocket carriages slow
down the plane by as much as so
to rs miles an hour. making 1t a
better target for opposing gunners
in fighter and bomber airplanes.
And when both rockets have been
discharged, the plane is through and
must break of combat or rely on
its auxiliary machine guns. Against
single planes or open formations
the rocket is Of minimum effective
ness.
Plane-borne rockets can and no
doubt will be improved. But at the
present time the possibilities for de-
velopment of the aerial rs would
seem to be greater.