These days we use computers with highly aerodynamically unstable designs to get that type of performance and still maintain control. As a result they were not as accurate as our Navy’s dive bombers without descending to lower altitudes.īasically it allowed vertical descent without the number of problems that a solid brake would incur (IE make the aircraft more unstable.) Since most aircraft of this period had minimal mechanical assistance and lacked stabilization controls found in today's high performance bombers, attempting to control the aircraft as it descended like that was difficult as a huge number of minor inputs are necessary to keep it stable. This also affected lift and the trim of the aircraft. Neither the Stuka nor the Val was designed for bombing with extremely high dive paths.(5) Instead of trailing edge split wing dive flaps their device was a flap that dropped vertically from the center of the wing spar. The aircraft was literally flown down the dive path at constant speed, using ailerons and elevators to continually adjust the point of impact until bomb release and pull out. The target, at 24 knots would travel 1,214 feet while a plane dived from a two mile altitude. Ideally the dive bombing aircraft, in a vertical 90 degree attitude, plunged at a 70 degree flight path because of the remaining lift on the wings. A yoke was designed to throw the bomb clear of the aircraft’s propeller when the bomb was dropped in a vertical dive. Wings were strengthened to withstand the high G forces at pull out. Of these features most important were the split wing trailing edge perforated dive flaps or “brakes” to retard diving speed and allow more abrupt pullouts. The unique features engineered into the Dauntless SBD enabled the pilot to fly a controlled vertical flight from 10,000 feet or more to sea level, tracking a moving target ship as small as 40 feet wide which was taking evasive action. All military pilots have put aircraft in vertical dives, and many have dropped bombs from a diving plane, but our Navy’s dive bombing was different from the diving attacks of conventional aircraft. Here's a link to the history from US Naval Institute.Įven pilots of other services have a minimal understanding of dive bombing.
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