Historic Aviation > Warbirds

P-80 and Me262

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alyster:
Me262's ammo had very low starting speed(v0) and there for it's effective shooting range was too small. It had to get very close to enemy planes.

Zeke:
But the striking power of the 4x 30mm cannons was just immense, and with a good pilot who knew the ballistics you could get decent range out of it all.
In the end I think it comes down to the pilots and by that time of the war the American pilots were in general much superior as many of the German "Experten" had perished or burned out.

alyster:
If he gets in range. The time being in range was so small. The bombers were slow, Me262 super fast and so it was hard  being in range long time enough to acualy kill a bomber.
I'd surely go with P-80's 50cal then German 30mm, at list with jet vs bomber.

Germans were unhappy with their results of the 30mm so they even tried 50mm. Does anyone have data how that thing worked?

Zeke:
If you're talking fighter v's fighter then I'd go with the P-80 anyday, but i'd use the 262 to take down the bombers.

The 50mm cannon was a MK214 from what I remember, fitted with and auto loader and carrying about 10 shots. Apparently it was used a couple of times operationally and a few claims were made for it. It was supposed to be extremely hard to aim properly but if you did hit anything the 50mm shell would just tear it apart.
The Americans tested one tof the 262's fitted with it after the war. I wonder what they thought of it?

Zeke:
I did a bit more reading about this particular one and apparently only 3 of this type were ever made, the first had the 50mm BK5 cannon and the next two and the more effective Mk214A tht could fire at up to 150rpm
Surprisingly the pilots say that the huge gun made almost no difference to the ME262's handling with a ballast weight in the rear fuselage to counter the mass up front and the recoil was so effectively damped that the only real effect on firing was a loss of yaw stability.
Two B-17's have been claimed as destroyed but this is still under debate (like so much information from this time).

The 262 was done out with a whole stack of different armamnet fits, all sorts of various cannons and rockets were tried, even aerial bombs and bombs with V1 wings being towed behind the fighter...ha ha ha, those crazy Germans!... ;D

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