Morning Shower Thought: Bombs

[40plus]

Is it possible to detonate a target's under-slung bomb by shooting it?

I'm specifically thinking of those huge 1000kg bombs that stick out like a sore thumb.

 

Question pertains to both in-game and historical fact. Was this a thing?

[RedKestrel]

1 minute ago, pfrances said:

Is it possible to detonate a target's under-slung bomb by shooting it?

I'm specifically thinking of those huge 1000kg bombs that stick out like a sore thumb.

 

Question pertains to both in-game and historical fact. Was this a thing?

Interesting question. I know I've never managed it in-game, although I have managed to blow up a fighter with enough hits.

[SFC_Tako]

Never seen it happen in-game.

In real life you'd first need to penetrate the bomb's iron exterior and THEN set off a small explosion inside them.

OR somehow trigger the bombs to go off by a lucky super special shot at the fuses.

Could any of that have ever happened? Well, possibly.

Have I ever heard about it? Nope.

[E4GLEyE]

dont think so... As with the He111 me and a few friends were flying her and we had the 1k on its belly, the gunner below shot it with the forward facing belly gun and no effect on target . (the bullets flew through it like if it has no hitbox)

 

Edit: Tho I had a case of blowing up a Ju88 with the first few hits... But that could be a fuel tank hit or something similar

Edited March 22, 2019 by E4GLEyE
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[40plus]

19 minutes ago, SFC_Tako said:

Never seen it happen in-game.

In real life you'd first need to penetrate the bomb's iron exterior and THEN set off a small explosion inside them.

OR somehow trigger the bombs to go off by a lucky super special shot at the fuses.

Could any of that have ever happened? Well, possibly.

Have I ever heard about it? Nope.

 

Yeh I was wondering about penetrating the iron bomb casing as well. Surely the large caliber AP rounds could do it.

 

I've watched videos of the RAF shooting down the V1s with a terrific boom and thought it would be fun to eviscerate Heinkel in a similar fashion. By the sounds of it though, the bombs don't have a hit box. Shame.

[HansBlitz]

Saburo Sakai described a B17 blowing up - its bomb load exploded from firing on the B17 (hits walked along fuselage then the plane exploded when hits reached the bombs inside). If I remember correctly said explosion jolted him hard enough that he likely was lucky the blast didn't destroy him as well.

 

I've not seen such in game. I've had a few explosions that were likely ammo box or fuel tanks.

[KatieLuna]

I have had shootdowns where it would seem no fuel had been ignited, and there was certainly not enough space to get to the explosion ratio of vapour to air in the tank. So I have to conclude that the ammunition had detonated (for example wing hits on a non-wet-wing fighter) and caused the explosion. This was also before the update where aircraft were given the chance to have an instantaneous fuel explosion on a tank hit.

 

On that note, do you think the tank detonation probability is based on real world factors like tank-fullness, temperature and altitude?

[LukeFF]

51 minutes ago, TheTacticalCat said:

On that note, do you think the tank detonation probability is based on real world factors like tank-fullness, temperature and altitude?

 

Fuel capacity does affect the probability of a fire, yes. 

[-SF-Disarray]

While not a detonation, I have had the rocket tubes shot off a P47 in game. So there seems to be some interaction available when it comes to under slung weapons I have seen a few detonations of internal cannon ammunition stores but only rarely.

[[APAF]VR_Spartan85]

I can see when they implement external fuel tanks being ignited or exploded... 

it would be neat if you could damage ordinance so bombs become duds...

 

Maybe explosive rounds could set off bombs?

[7.GShAP/Silas]

I'm not sure about bombs, but I've had my rockets detonated multiple times when they were struck by fire from an enemy aircraft.

 

This makes sense realistically, as the rockets are "live" as soon as the electrical system of the aircraft is activated.

Edited March 22, 2019 by 7.GShAP/Silas

[CrazyDuck]

3 hours ago, LukeFF said:

 

Fuel capacity does affect the probability of a fire, yes. 

 

 

Also it affects the probability of explosion (due to critical air/fuel vapor mixture in the empty portion of fuel tank). It's modelled very nicely actually, planes with nearly empty fuel tanks are far more likely to explode (even from 7.7mm gunfire) than the ones with their tanks full.

[40plus]

2 hours ago, 7.GShAP/Silas said:

I'm not sure about bombs, but I've had my rockets detonated multiple times when they were struck by fire from an enemy aircraft.

 

This makes sense realistically, as the rockets are "live" as soon as the electrical system of the aircraft is activated.

 

Whether or not the bomb/rocket is armed shouldn't really matter in this case. By shooting the warhead with an AP incendiary you are circumventing the arming of the fuse and going straight to the source of the boom.

 

I'm curious most about the historical aspect of this. Apart from @HansBlitz referencing the Saburo Sakai story above, My google-fu hasn't found much mention of bombs going off while still in/attached to a bomber.

[MarderIV]

I'm sure I've seen it happen, though there's still a case of whether or not the bombs blew up or a direct flak hit just forced an "explode" trigger. Probably a whole host of other reasons, but the boom certainly was beautiful - if not utterly terrifying.

 

Also wasn't there a gun-cam footage showing a B-17 receiving a gun pass from the front, then suddenly blowing up? Trying to recall where exactly I've seen that.

[40plus]

1 hour ago, MarderIV said:

 

Nice screen shot. I've never experience such a chaotic scene.

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

19 hours ago, pfrances said:

 

Yeh I was wondering about penetrating the iron bomb casing as well. Surely the large caliber AP rounds could do it.

 

I've watched videos of the RAF shooting down the V1s with a terrific boom and thought it would be fun to eviscerate Heinkel in a similar fashion. By the sounds of it though, the bombs don't have a hit box. Shame.

 

Own bomb can fly throw plane which drop them . But I witnessed midair bomb detonation which hit enemy plane . 

 

Notice the process : first plane exploded ,then the bomb ?

 

Edited March 23, 2019 by 307_Tomcat

[Ghost666]

OK Tomcat, now that is just COOOOOOOOL!

[migmadmarine]

Similar to tomcat's story, I recently flew through the bomb dump from an A-20 on a career mode intercept, and had one of the bombs strike my rear fusalage/horizontal stabilizer, but it had not fuzed yet so it just shoved my nose up maybe 10 degrees and did some light structural damage.