Terminal velocity of bombs?

After an exhausting session with Victoria's Secret Police "Ed Majden"
blurted out:

Seems to me I heard somewhere that a high altitude parachutist was going
to try and break the sound barrier! Anyone know anything about this?

Try this
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/inter...754911,00.html

An analysis I did some years ago showed that a Mk-84 dropped from about
30,000 ft and about 500 knots will become just about supersonic before
striking the ground. However, that analysis did not account for the
relatively small lift force occurring as the bomb centerline transitions
from horizontal to near vertical during the bomb's flight.

WDA

end

"BackToNormal" wrote in message
zz...
Was half paying attention to a TV doco on the Dambusters a few mins ago
and thought I heard the narrator say the Earthquake bomb designed by
Barnes Wallis broke the sound barrie on its way down.
Comments anyone?

ronh

--
"People do not make decisions on facts, rather,
how they feel about the facts" Robert Consedine

"Juvat"
After an exhausting session with Victoria's Secret Police "Ed Majden"
blurted out:

I don't get this "Victoria's Secret Police" crack! Please enlighten
me????

Ed Majden implored me thusly:

I don't get this "Victoria's Secret Police" crack! Please enlighten
me????

Oy...imagine if you will that somebody is interrogating you, perhaps
the Gestapo, perhaps the KGB. No a pretty thought.

Now imagine scantily clad lingerie models trying to get something from
you...

YMMV

William Hughes wrote:

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 15:20:05 +1200, in rec.aviation.military
(BackToNormal) wrote:

Was half paying attention to a TV doco on the Dambusters a few mins ago
and thought I heard the narrator say the Earthquake bomb designed by
Barnes Wallis broke the sound barrie on its way down.
Comments anyone?

Methinks you may have misinterpereted something.

Nope. It was on the National Geographic channel in a prog called
"Dambusters".

Iron bombs have the same
terminal velocity as everything else, about 135 mph, IIRC.

Not really, but my ears pricked up at the sound barrier ref. By luck, my
vcr was running for the first part of the show, and here's the relevant
bit.

"In the Spring of 1941, he (Barnes Wallis) was ready to unveil a bomb
which was as unique as it was powerful, the 10 ton earthquake bomb. An
aerodynamic masterpiece, it would break the sound barrier on its
descent, while its offset tailfins would make it spin like a giant
dart".

There was no a/c capable of carrying it, so he had already designed a
six engined bomber which never eventuated because the Lancaster was on
the way, and the earthquake bomb design never saw fruition. The program
was a fascinating story on development of the cylindrical bombs which
breached the Ruhr dams, but that sound barrier reference had me
thinking. Responses (some) from other posters indicate it was/is
possible.

ronh


--
"People do not make decisions on facts, rather,
how they feel about the facts" Robert Consedine

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 19:43:07 GMT, Ed Majden wrote:

I don't get this "Victoria's Secret Police" crack! Please enlighten
me????

http://www.victoriassecret.com/
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/secr.html

-Jeff B.
yeff at erols dot com

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:06:26 GMT, Juvat
wrote:

After an exhausting session with Victoria's Secret Police "Ed Majden"
blurted out:

Seems to me I heard somewhere that a high altitude parachutist was going
to try and break the sound barrier! Anyone know anything about this?

Try this
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/inter...754911,00.html

And, that link mentions that Joe Kittinger did it around 30 years ago.
Beside the supersonic freefall that Joe did, he also got a MiG in SEA
and spent some time as a guest of the North Vietnamese.

Ooops. I've fallen into the trap that Ed Majden set. Here's yet
another claim that either a Yank or a Russian did everything worth
doing first!

Yep, Kittinger did it already.

"Ed Majden" wrote in message
...

"Juvat"
After an exhausting session with Victoria's Secret Police "Ed
Majden"
blurted out:

I don't get this "Victoria's Secret Police" crack! Please
enlighten
me????

Ed, you really need to get out more. :^)
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

Ed Rasimus remarked:

Beside the supersonic freefall that Joe did, he also got a MiG in SEA
and spent some time as a guest of the North Vietnamese.

That POW part had a great deal to do with duplicating the MiG kill
part...Fangs out, Hair on Fire...

The reports of his free-fall records...scary. Mas Cajones.

Juvat

In message ,
BackToNormal writes
"In the Spring of 1941, he (Barnes Wallis) was ready to unveil a bomb
which was as unique as it was powerful, the 10 ton earthquake bomb. An
aerodynamic masterpiece, it would break the sound barrier on its
descent, while its offset tailfins would make it spin like a giant
dart".

There was no a/c capable of carrying it, so he had already designed a
six engined bomber which never eventuated because the Lancaster was on
the way, and the earthquake bomb design never saw fruition. The program
was a fascinating story on development of the cylindrical bombs which
breached the Ruhr dams, but that sound barrier reference had me
thinking. Responses (some) from other posters indicate it was/is
possible.

It was developed, fielded and used (from that very Lancaster)- the
ten-ton "Grand Slam" and the smaller "Tallboy" were useful niche weapons
with a few famous successes to their names..


--
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
W S Churchill

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk