Quote from: zenrat on March 04, 2024, 01:56:52 AMhow would you accurately gauge the height above water of an aircraft in daylight?

Length of rope with a weight on the end? If it is not causing spray from the water your too high, too much spray and your too low. If the guy in the ball turret has caught a fish, then your probably too low. 

Gondor

Quote from: Gondor on March 04, 2024, 02:32:51 AM

Quote from: zenrat on March 04, 2024, 01:56:52 AMhow would you accurately gauge the height above water of an aircraft in daylight?

Length of rope with a weight on the end? If it is not causing spray from the water your too high, too much spray and your too low. If the guy in the ball turret has caught a fish, then your probably too low. 

Gondor

ISTR 617 tried that and it just trailed straight out behind them.

Quote from: zenrat on March 04, 2024, 02:58:32 AM

Quote from: Gondor on March 04, 2024, 02:32:51 AM

Quote from: zenrat on March 04, 2024, 01:56:52 AMhow would you accurately gauge the height above water of an aircraft in daylight?

Length of rope with a weight on the end? If it is not causing spray from the water your too high, too much spray and your too low. If the guy in the ball turret has caught a fish, then your probably too low. 

Gondor

ISTR 617 tried that and it just trailed straight out behind them.

This is whiff world.

Gondor

A VERY heavy weight then? About 6600 lbs should do it. 

As to the diameter, maybe some factor would be how different sized bombs bounced off the water at different speeds? I imagine a small diameter bomb wouldn't have enough surface area and could just sink straight in maybe?

Quote from: zenrat on March 03, 2024, 02:52:55 AMPineapple, the king of fruit, is often the only way to add a bit of interest to a bland mix of pizza toppings.

I wouldn't argue with pineapple being the king of fruit, and you can always add interest to pizza with chiles 

Quote from: NARSES2 on March 04, 2024, 06:07:08 AM

Quote from: zenrat on March 03, 2024, 02:52:55 AMPineapple, the king of fruit, is often the only way to add a bit of interest to a bland mix of pizza toppings.

I wouldn't argue with pineapple being the king of fruit, and you can always add interest to pizza with chiles 

My mum used to do gammon steaks with pineapple rings on top. Haven't had that in a long time.

Back to the question in hand:
Was it possible for an accurate airborne radar altimeter to be developed by 1943?
Or perhaps a Sonic Altimeter?

How about a very long ruler?
Queen Victoria ruled for long so she'll do!   

Instead of two light projectors, like in real life, what about 2 darkness projectors ? 

The aircraft in this post :-   https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=43160.240  is   perhaps  a Soviet answer to the question.  Darkness projectors are hardly practicable , although two elderly ladies in the coffee shop in Leominster  this lunchtime were projecting a considerable quantity of heavy gloom.  Seriously though, would very bright orange or  red lights  work?

Sonar?  Works for bats.

I seem to recall 617 Sqn worked out how to get the altitude right during daylight, during their training, then had to work out how to do it at night.


But I could be wrong, it's been a while since I last read "Enemy Coast Ahead".

According to the RAF Museum the Dambusters turned to spotlights after the special altimeter from EMI proved unreliable.
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/617-squadron-and-the-dams-raid/spotlights-low-altitude-flying-modification/

The Highball missions using Mosquito relied on pilot judgement when attacking ships in daytime. I saw one of the practice rounds at the De Havilland museum a while ago which had been recovered from Loch Striven.
https://www.key.aero/article/dambusters

And for those of you into geometry and advanced mathematics     https://devan.codes/blog/2020/5/19/dambusters-and-forgotten-boffins

Must be doable, the skip-bombing technique in the Pacific was worked out on the fly (oops, another one I didn't spot until too late - sorry again, Chris) I mean in the Field.
So if they're somewhere they have ready access to all sorts of Boffins, it should be easier. Or so one would think.

Quote from: Rick Lowe on March 06, 2024, 11:42:01 PMSo if they're somewhere they have ready access to all sorts of Boffins, it should be easier. Or so one would think.

The only problem with having multiple specialists of all kinds about is that you get different schools of thought and some of the disagreements can turn quite nasty.  Then once they've come to some sort of agreement, or someone (Oppenheimer ?) has made a decision some poor sod has to put the thing into practice    I only ever had to do it with computer systems and that was bad enough 

Quote from: NARSES2 on March 07, 2024, 01:23:59 AM

Quote from: Rick Lowe on March 06, 2024, 11:42:01 PMSo if they're somewhere they have ready access to all sorts of Boffins, it should be easier. Or so one would think.

The only problem with having multiple specialists of all kinds about is that you get different schools of thought and some of the disagreements can turn quite nasty.  Then once they've come to some sort of agreement, or someone (Oppenheimer ?) has made a decision some poor sod has to put the thing into practice    I only ever had to do it with computer systems and that was bad enough 

Chris I come across this all the time in the automotive world.
Some "smart" arse will design it..someone will build it but not at one single moment in time did anyone think of how to fix it and how to get access to anything 
That explains why my hands look the way they do .

Quote from: Wardukw on March 07, 2024, 08:59:17 AMChris I come across this all the time in the automotive world.
Some "smart" arse will design it..someone will build it but not at one single moment in time did anyone think of how to fix it and how to get access to anything 
That explains why my hands look the way they do .

'Kit's Theory of Automotive Engineering' says that all the major decisions about where bits go are taken by guys MILES up the corporate tree. So far up the tree that the last time they actually did any work on cars was DECADES ago and they can't remember what to do. And in any case now they  get some minion to do such things for them anyway.

Back in the 60s I WAS one of the minions!