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Old November 14th 03, 10:50 AM
Dave Eadsforth
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In article , Gord Beaman
?@?.? writes
Dave Eadsforth wrote:

fusing his bomb load as they crossed the coast
- always thought that fusing was done after they were committed to the
run in - after all, they might have had to abort and jettison, and a
hang up was always on the cards - who would want to land with a fused
hung bomb?

Cheers,

Dave


Pretty good points all Dave...this one isn't (unless they used a
different system during the war) which certainly is possible.

The bomb shackles that we used on the Lanc in the fifties used a
comparatively simple electrical solenoid to hold the 'arming
wire' anchored to the shackle unless it was desired to drop them
'safe' at which time the solenoid was powered, withdrawing a pin
from the loop in the wire and allowing the wire to pull out of
the shackle and fall 'with' the bomb.

This wire (when anchored during the drop) pulls a safety pin out
of the little 'arming propeller/fan' on the bomb's nose allowing
it to spin and arm the bomb as it falls. So basically, you can
arm them or disarm them at will.

Also, a 'Coast Crossing Check Outbound' (and another inbound) was
quite common (in ASW at least). Just to ensure nothing could
accidentally drop from the a/c over land.
--

-Gord.


Hi Gord,

Thanks for all that - you have just completed my education as to how the
bomb carrier worked. I knew that there was an arming unit on the front
of the bomb carrier, but in my ignorance I thought it was a one time,
one-way operation.

Re. the arming solenoid, just so I have that correct, would I be right
to assume that the arming unit had a default of allowing the bombs to
drop safe, i.e. the arming wire was free to drop with the bomb unless
the solenoid was energised by the arming switch to trap the wire to the
carrier as you described?

Cheers,

Dave

--
Dave Eadsforth