Bomb selection and delay system in the Pe-2

[LukeFF]

Contrary to the Ju-87, the bomb controls in the Pe-2 work in a manner that at first seems a bit counter-intuitive. But, after a bit of studying how the system works, one can learn how to manipulate the controls without needing the help of technochat.

 

First off are the bomb status lights. These show which bomb stations still have ordnance on board. The order of the lights is as follows:

• 1 and 2: outer underwing bomb racks
• 3 and 4: inner underwing bomb racks
• 6 and 8: port fuselage bomb racks
• 5 & 7: starboard fuselage bomb racks
• 9 & 10 engine nacelle bomb racks

It's important to note the fuselage carries a total of 4 bombs, so the lights will not go out for 6 & 8 and 5 & 7 until all bombs have been released. In other words, if the lights for these racks are lit, that means there is still at least one bomb on board the plane at the station in question. The engine nacelle and underwing bomb racks carry only one bomb each, so these lights will go out as soon as the bombs are released.

 

In the image below, I've loaded 6 FAB-100 bombs, so the lower 4 lights are lit:

 

 

Next up, the bomb release mode settings: the Pe-2 supports 3 different release modes: 1 bomb, 2 bombs, or 4 bombs. In the image above, the white dial to the right of the bomb status lights (which is numbered from 0-40) is pointed at the number 1. With the 6 FAB-100 bomb loadout, this number 1 refers to "bomb #1" in the fuselage bomb rack. Once that bomb is released, the dial will move to number 2, and so forth. 

 

Put another way, numbers 1-4 on the white dial refer to the fuselage bombs, and numbers 5-6, again on the white dial, refer to the two engine nacelle bombs when carrying FAB-100s. That's an important distinction from the Ju-87, where the bomb status indicator numbers correspond directly to the numbers on the placard. The one time this isn't so confusing is when you are carrying 250-kilogram bombs, which in that case occupy bomb status lights 1-4.

 

Now, if I set the release controls to release two bombs at a time, the white dial moves to number 2, as seen in the image below. This lets you know that two bombs will be released with every press of the bomb release button, and the first two bombs to be released in this case will be two of the fuselage bombs. After releasing these 2 bombs the dial will move to number 4 and then to number 6:

 

 

If I set the bomb controls to release four bombs at a time, the white dial will move to number 4:

 

 

Lastly, there is the bomb release delay function. This controls the amount of time between bombs being released if you have chosen to release multiple bombs at one time. This control is the gray knob above the white dial and has four settings: 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 seconds. The higher the number, the wider your bomb pattern will be.

[unreasonable]

Thanks for working this out, I sure it would have driven me crazy!

[vonPilsner]

Wow, thanks for sharing this info!

 

[KpaxBos]

Hi

 

Some details here (fench) :

http://www.checksix-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=437&t=185450&start=25