No it isn't, this actually was an issue in a few rare cases with the last of the .50BMG-armed jets.
-Adam graywolf wrote: > Another urban legend. The fact is that by the time the bullets slowed that > much > their trajectory would have dropped below the aircrafts line of flight. > > I saw a training film while in the AF of a pair of F-104's strafing concrete > pillboxes in which they first hit it with rockets and then made a second pass > with their Gatling guns, so the idea that they did not have guns is > ridiculous. > > The most interesting thing to me was that after the rocket attack the > pillboxes > looked like the photos of bombed out buildings you saw in magazine photos, > after > the Vulcan Gatling gun pass there was nothing left standing. Of course the > supersonic shock wave from a couple of 104's going over at 25 feet, or so, > most > likely helped flatten the shattered pillboxes, but the Gatlings were outright > amazing. IIRC, they were the 20mm's which means 5000 HE rounds per minute. > > So, as I recall it the F-104 (or at least one version) was armed with one > 20mm > Vulcan Gating gun in the nose, four rocket launchers under each wing, and I > believe there was a hard point under the belly for one bomb or drop tank for > increased range. > > > > > John Sessoms wrote: >> From: Adam Maas >> >>> Well, Canada did buy a bunch of F-104's. Too bad ours were low-level >>> nuke ground attack birds (Absolutely no air-to-air capability due to >>> lacking a gun prior to 1972 and a dedicated ground-attack radar >>> instead of the normal air-to-air set). We shoulda bought F-105 thuds >>> instead. >>> >>> The CF-104 killed a lot of Canadians. >> >> AFAIK, none of the F-104s were equipped with guns. >> >> There's one minor problem with guns in super-sonic interceptors. Once >> the bullets leave the barrel, air resistance slows them dramatically. >> The aircraft, still flying at super-sonic speed, rapidly overtakes them. >> >> Doesn't matter if the bullet catches up with you from behind or you >> catch up with it ... the end result is still un-wanted holes in the >> aircraft. >> > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
