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Posted

Haven't watched the video yet, but I read that they targeted lots of rural and Midwest kids that grew up bird hunting because they understand the concept of 'deflection shooting', ie. leading your target.

Same reason mechanized units loved them, as they grew up around large farm equipment and knew how to work on them, fix them, etc.  

Posted
39 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

Haven't watched the video yet, but I read that they targeted lots of rural and Midwest kids that grew up bird hunting because they understand the concept of 'deflection shooting', ie. leading your target.

Same reason mechanized units loved them, as they grew up around large farm equipment and knew how to work on them, fix them, etc.  

Um, I’m pretty sure they were taking anyone they could get. They didn’t have the luxury of sorting by region. 

Posted
14 minutes ago, Helobious said:

Um, I’m pretty sure they were taking anyone they could get. They didn’t have the luxury of sorting by region. 

They brought in as many kids as they could, but once in the "pipeline", they found certain specialties were better suited for certain jobs.  Deflection shooting is hard to learn and hard to teach, especially with bombers clustered together.  They tried to mitigate this by staggering the planes vertically and laterally, but it was what it was.

To teach it, many services started gunners with shotguns and clay targets - which as you can imagine, a certain segment of the population was more comfortable with than others.  

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Posted
2 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

Haven't watched the video yet, but I read that they targeted lots of rural and Midwest kids that grew up bird hunting because they understand the concept of 'deflection shooting', ie. leading your target.

Same reason mechanized units loved them, as they grew up around large farm equipment and knew how to work on them, fix them, etc.  

 

Yeah, the video talks about deflection shooting, and how the amount of deflection depends on the angle of attack of the fighters attacking the bombers (which depends on the location of the fighter relative to the bomber during the fighter's attack run).  Explained it in pretty good detail, with animation, and then broke it down and just told them how much to adjust their aim (lead by x number of radii of the crosshairs) based on the angle of attack of the incoming fighter. 

I'm not a hunter or a gunner, but the video was fascinating. 

I could totally see a physics teacher using that video to teach relative motion. 

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Posted

"Rads" on a moving target is similar to mil-dots on a fixed scope.  They both account for movement, velocity, and direction.  Long-range shooters geek out over this stuff, even taking into consideration the Coriolis effect, or the rotation of the Earth and it's impact on the trajectory of the bullet at extreme ranges.  

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Posted
2 hours ago, Helobious said:

Um, I’m pretty sure they were taking anyone they could get. They didn’t have the luxury of sorting by region. 

They absolutely sorted by region, ability, size, etc. My great-uncle was put into the Marine sniper school because he told them he was a squirrel hunter. 

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Posted
21 minutes ago, jkates said:

They absolutely sorted by region, ability, size, etc. My great-uncle was put into the Marine sniper school because he told them he was a squirrel hunter. 

Lol, which makes perfect sense.  Stalking the woods, having to hit a small, often alerted animal that moves fast, is elevated, alerts others to your presence, and all with open sights - probably with a single-shot .22lr.  Shit isn't easy.  

Posted
2 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

They brought in as many kids as they could, but once in the "pipeline", they found certain specialties were better suited for certain jobs.  Deflection shooting is hard to learn and hard to teach, especially with bombers clustered together.  They tried to mitigate this by staggering the planes vertically and laterally, but it was what it was.

To teach it, many services started gunners with shotguns and clay targets - which as you can imagine, a certain segment of the population was more comfortable with than others.  

 

33 minutes ago, jkates said:

They absolutely sorted by region, ability, size, etc. My great-uncle was put into the Marine sniper school because he told them he was a squirrel hunter. 

Haha replying to a topic @Helobious is ignorant about 

first time GIF

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Posted
1 hour ago, BabaYaga said:

Lol, which makes perfect sense.  Stalking the woods, having to hit a small, often alerted animal that moves fast, is elevated, alerts others to your presence, and all with open sights - probably with a single-shot .22lr.  Shit isn't easy.  

 

7joc4eyxij041.gif

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Posted
2 hours ago, jkates said:

They absolutely sorted by region, ability, size, etc. My great-uncle was put into the Marine sniper school because he told them he was a squirrel hunter. 

What would they do with a guy in a Walmart t-shirt and a fake silver Amazon chain?

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Posted
4 hours ago, Helobious said:

Um, I’m pretty sure they were taking anyone they could get. They didn’t have the luxury of sorting by region. 

Uh, ever notice how many pilots, navigators and bombardiers had some college and even a college degree.  Timmy from the coal mine wasn't flying P-51s.

Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

 

Shows/explains relative motion and independence of perpendicular motions very well. 

Made in the 1940s, just artists and engineers, drawing frame by frame. 

 

GIF by Le Figaro

Edited by elfenix
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Posted
17 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

Lol, which makes perfect sense.  Stalking the woods, having to hit a small, often alerted animal that moves fast, is elevated, alerts others to your presence, and all with open sights - probably with a single-shot .22lr.  Shit isn't easy.  

 

I said I wasn't a hunter or shooter earlier, but I used to "hunt" squirrels with a 22 in the pecan orchards on my grandfather's farm. And yes, it wasn't easy, even with dogs that would scare the squirrel around the trunk of the tree so it was spread eagled holding onto the trunk on my side of the tree. 

When I did manage to bring one down, the dogs would tear the shit out of it playing tug of war. 

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Posted
15 hours ago, Macanudo said:

Uh, ever notice how many pilots, navigators and bombardiers had some college and even a college degree.  Timmy from the coal mine wasn't flying P-51s.

 

Which is why Mechanic Sergeant Micklin would call the Black Sheep Squadron pilots "college boys". 

 

Posted (edited)
16 hours ago, Macanudo said:

Uh, ever notice how many pilots, navigators and bombardiers had some college and even a college degreeTimmy  Chuck from the coal mine wasn't flying P-51s.

I get your point, but this guy says hi...

 

image.thumb.png.8796cd65962a5b58b3ae022b49cbbb9f.png

Edited by BillyGoatHill
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Posted
8 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

Exception, not the rule.  Not your average West Virginia kid.  

He attended Hamlin High School, where he played basketball and football, receiving his best grades in geometry and typing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager

Whoa...easy. 

Just having fun. Plus he started out in as a mechanic, before being excepted for pilot training.

Posted
55 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Every one of them was far more of a man than any of us here.

Could any of them have won a fight against a chimp?

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