monitors with spare cruiser turrets.

[Sauragnmon]

Put a 6" naval gun in a fixed forward mounting, replacing the bomb bay with the shell handling support.  Longer wings, two additional engines, maybe widen the wing chord to get more lift... I see your Ju-88P with the 75mm and raise you The Super-Lancaster Sledgehammer Edition!

[eatthis]

160 tons on a lanc? 

[Rheged]

160 tons on a lanc? 

I hope he means just one gun, no turret no training mechanism  etc.  It would look good in Coastal Command colours, enforcing an interdict over the Bay of Biscay.

At the risk of offending our Caledonian members, I give you the Avro Gorbals..........a cry of "See you, Jimmie...."  from one of the observers  and in sweeps the aircraft to administer the airbourne equivalent of a "Glesga' kiss"

[Sauragnmon]

I was talking about just the one gun, and you could possibly shorten the barrel as well, considering the lower range of engagement - you're not lobbing shells for miles, you're just sledgehammering things inside of a mile if that.

[pyro-manic]

One shot and the gun tube (all seven tonnes of it) exits the aircraft backwards, taking the tailgunner with it! The recoil force would be far more than any airframe could withstand - 112lb shell, muzzle velocity of 2758 feet per second. That's one hell of a kick! Plus the blast would be enough to severely damage the aircraft too.

A couple of rails of RP-3s (or even a lot of rails!) would be far more useful on any aircraft, IMO.


I think a triple-6" turret is possibly a bit much for a monitor, unless you're talking about a huge Roberts-type ship with all the issues that brings (cost, crew, vulnerability vs. utility etc). Several smaller, lighter, cheaper monitors would be more flexible, with one or two 6" each plus a couple of smaller guns (4", 25lbers?)

[PR19_Kit]

Defeatist thoughts, I'm sure Roy Chadwick wouldn't have been fazed at such ideas.

He'd have scaled up the aircraft until it WAS big enough to lift the turrets and withstand the recoil!

[eatthis]

Defeatist thoughts, I'm sure Roy Chadwick wouldn't have been fazed at such ideas.

He'd have scaled up the aircraft until it WAS big enough to lift the turrets and withstand the recoil!

24 engined 400 foot wingspan vulcan? IM IN 

[tigercat]

A ball bearing of equal weight could be propelled out of the rear of the aircraft to cancel the recoil  although it would make formation flying tricky.

[eatthis]

A ball bearing of equal weight could be propelled out of the rear of the aircraft to cancel the recoil  although it would make formation flying tricky.

how would you propel said ball bearing?

[jcf]

Six inches? Child's play, how about 365mm (14.37")?
 

[rickshaw]

A ball bearing of equal weight could be propelled out of the rear of the aircraft to cancel the recoil  although it would make formation flying tricky.

how would you propel said ball bearing?

By Davis gun principle - propelling an equal sized mass to the rear counters the recoil of the shell being fired forwards.  Requires twice the propellant.  Normally they used an oil and sand mixture, rather than a solid counter-weight.  As it exited the barrel, it would break up into literally a storm of sand.    Davis Guns were used operationally in WWI on large US flying boats as anti-submarine weapons, on a trainable mount in the bow.  The Davis Gun principle was used most recently in the Armbrust infantry AT recoilless rifle.  In that case they used what were usually described as "plastic flakes" which produced a "storm of confetti" when the weapon was fired.  Allowed it to be used indoors as well, which normal recoilless rifles couldn't be.

Jon has kindly posted a diagram of a planned German use of the principle to allow a very large calibre gun to be used on a German bomber.

[PR19_Kit]

NOW we're getting with the programme! 

Some good ideas here, and yes, a 24 engined, 400 ft wingspan Lanc is definitely getting there, but could need longer wings.......... 

[eatthis]

NOW we're getting with the programme! 

Some good ideas here, and yes, a 24 engined, 400 ft wingspan Lanc is definitely getting there, but could need longer wings.......... 

mine was a vulcan not a lanc lol no way would a 400 foot wingspan vulcan need more wing 

[tigercat]

How about a delta wing Lanc

[Rheged]

NOW we're getting with the programme! 

Some good ideas here, and yes, a 24 engined, 400 ft wingspan Lanc is definitely getting there, but could need longer wings.......... 

mine was a vulcan not a lanc lol no way would a 400 foot wingspan vulcan need more wing 

Either way,  the civil engineers are going to have an interesting time building runways...........