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Question about Tallboy/Grand Slam bombs

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Question about Tallboy/Grand Slam bombs

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Old 19th Nov 2010, 17:31
  #21 (permalink)  
 
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3700ft/sec is probably a good number for terminal velocity. The problem would be getting a Lanc to 220000 ft to drop it.

After an excellent landing you can use the airplane again!
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Old 20th Nov 2010, 00:22
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Tallboy Bomb

Further to my previous post 12 , Dambusters also explains that the depth of penetration into the earth , dependant on fuse setting ,was estimated to be capable of displacing one million cubic feet of earth whilst creating a crater requiring five thousand tons of earth to backfill.

Some muckspreader ,could spoil ones day if dropped in ones backyard !!
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Old 20th Nov 2010, 04:56
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Grand Slam

As a schoolboy in Wilhelmshaven after ww2 It was possible to go to many places that Health & Safety would have had a fit about these days. I was shown a hole in the top of the U-boat pens supposedly made by a Grand Slam bomb which subsequently exploded deep underground. Also remember the Army engineers detonating some dangerous explosive
which caused most of the remaining windows in that part of town to shatter. Apparently they forgot to inform the locals what they were up to.
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Old 21st Nov 2010, 19:15
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50°55'32.80"N 1°43'3.00"W. (New Forest)

Pop that into Google Earth and see how big that hole is...the pond inside it is 50 x 60 ft! What else could have made that but a Grandslam, and they were tested there apparently.
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Old 21st Nov 2010, 19:56
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I remember reading somewhere a long time back, that the New Forest was the only place where the grand slam was tested.
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Old 21st Nov 2010, 20:08
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Aviate1138. It was Scampton and I've been assured that it was an urban myth.
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Old 21st Nov 2010, 22:24
  #27 (permalink)  
 
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I thought they were tested at New Forest only and with Grand Slam they were so valuable they only tested one before going operational.
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 04:36
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"Tested" may be a bit of an exaggeration but there was a Grand Slam outside the museum at Fort Lewis, Washington State in the 80s. It was found on the ranges. My guess is that it was from B-17 trials & was jettisoned.

I seem to remember that it was not the blast itself but the shock wave produced that caused the main damage such that a near miss could do more than a direct hit. Barnes Wallis thought it up after he heard that shock waves from driving pilings was causing collateral damage at a site in London.
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 10:05
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Originally Posted by ICT_SLB
My guess is that it was from B-17 trials & was jettisoned.
My guess is that there is more chance of a Grand Slam getting airborne with a B-17 slung underneath, than a B-17 getting airborne with a Grand Slam. the largest bomb carried by the B-17 was 2000lb.
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 10:26
  #30 (permalink)  
 
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Probably a typo mate, he meant B-29....

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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 12:18
  #31 (permalink)  
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Gravity is not thrust, it is a fixed rate of acceleration and is totally independant of the mass of the object
True, which is the reason for the inverted commas (somebody else used the expression), but the inertia isn't independent and thats where the penetration comes from - 12,000 pounds travelling at 1100 feet per second when dropped from 18,000 feet using a modified optical bombsight.
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 12:54
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Ayn idea of the name of the air base just north of the above site

50°55'32.80"N 1°43'3.00"W - Google Maps

Just curious
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 13:30
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That would be RAF Stoney Cross I believe. (Would have been a good one for the 'Which Aerodrome' thread)
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 13:46
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Originally Posted by StbdD
That would be RAF Stoney Cross I believe. (Would have been a good one for the 'Which Aerodrome' thread)
Apart from its very unusual layout which is a dead giveaway.
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 14:27
  #35 (permalink)  
 
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TCraft41, Welcome to PPRuNe.

As StbdD said, it's Stoney Cross - a disused wartime airfield, which is used as a Visual Reporting Point for VFR traffic skulking round the edge of the "busy" Bournemouth zone.

IF you are interested in UK airfields, download this Google Earth 'kmz' file:

http://www.rickdavis.co.uk/home/UKAirfields.kmz

Here's the whole of the UK:




Another interesting 'kmz' file that I found recently is http://is.gd/hAMrD
which contains old aerial photos of airfields.

Here's the one for Stoney Cross (with Ab's Grand Slam crater in the top left corner):
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 15:10
  #36 (permalink)  
 
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I42

I tried to "load" the second kmz, bur without visible success. Any ideas? (I run a Mac, could that be a glitch?)

The Rick Davis stuff I have and it works perfectly.

Reg
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 15:37
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Gentlemen go to Brooklands where all 3 types of bomb 22,000, 12,000and "Bouncing" bombs are displayed and an informative text is displayed as well .
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 16:01
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There's confidence for you! At school I was taught that gravity is the force of attraction between two masses and was proportional to the masses of the two objects and their distance apart.

On the earth the gravitational force is sufficient to give an object an acceleration toward earth's center of 32ft/sec/sec (roughly)

Dick

Sorry, I'm a page out of date. I was replying to Ag. bis.

Last edited by Dick Whittingham; 22nd Nov 2010 at 16:14.
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Old 22nd Nov 2010, 22:29
  #39 (permalink)  
 
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RegDep,

I have a Mac too, so that is not the problem.

I clicked on the link I posted and downloaded the file directly to GE, but I noticed that it wasn't automatically turned on. Look at the bottom of the Places list, under Temporary Places. You should see 'airfield overlays28-1.kmz'. Click the box to turn it on.

PM me if you cannot get it to work.
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Old 23rd Nov 2010, 00:00
  #40 (permalink)  
 
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India Four Two

Thanks.

Besides just a historical interest of England I am friends with an Eighth Air Force vet of WW II. B-17 waist gunner with 50 plus missions.

I am trying to get him to record his war memories before it is too late. It may already be as he is having problems remembering exactly where he was based in England.

The Google location should help.
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