mmm@apple.com (07/05/89)
From: portal!cup.portal.com!mmm@apple.com How do tracer bullets work? I've heard that the guns on WW2 aircraft would alternate tracers with other types, like armor-piercing. What is the sequence of types?
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (07/07/89)
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >How do tracer bullets work? They have either a coating of tracer material -- just something that burns slowly with a bright flame -- or a well full of the stuff tucked away somewhere. Small-caliber tracers (which I have seen) use a coating; I think big ones sometimes use a well. >I've heard that the guns on WW2 aircraft >would alternate tracers with other types, like armor-piercing... Not uncommon. A lousy idea, as it turns out, because the ballistics are not quite the same. At least one fighter commander improved his group's gunnery considerably by ordering the tracers deleted. Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
mcgrew@topaz.rutgers.edu (Charles) (07/13/89)
From: mcgrew@topaz.rutgers.edu (Charles) Henry Spencer comments: >>I've heard that the guns on WW2 aircraft >>would alternate tracers with other types, like armor-piercing... >Not uncommon. A lousy idea, as it turns out, because the ballistics are >not quite the same. At least one fighter commander improved his group's >gunnery considerably by ordering the tracers deleted. Also, some pilots stopped using them because enemy pilots would be able to evade surprise attack, since early (wide) fire from the attacker would be very obvious and allow a good pilot the chance to maneuver away. I seem to remember reading this in Martin Caidin's "P-38", if nowhere else. If you've got a reliable gunsight, then you don't need tracers to tell you where you're shooting. Charles