The Airplane Thread

[Llarry]

The problem with dropping a high-explosive bomb at low altitude is that the airplane that dropped the bomb may be damaged or destroyed in the explosion. The solution, conceived in the early 1960s and still in use today is the Mark 15 Snake eye (alternative spelling Snakeye) add-on kit for the regular Mark 82 500-pound bomb.

The Snake eye replaces the conical tail cone of the bomb with spring-loaded air brakes that pop out after the bomb is dropped, slowing the forward progress of the bomb -- and allowing the aircraft that dropped the bomb to make a safe escape.

An alternative device for the same purpose was the air-inflated retarding ballute (balloon/parachute) similarly attached to the rear of the bomb. It is unclear to me whether this kit is still in use.

Of course, flying an attacking airplane at low altitude over an enemy target may be hazardous; these days it is much more likely that an attacking aircraft would use a GPS-guided bomb dropped from a much higher altitude.

[Llarry]

Red Rippers then and now...

F3F-1 of VF-4 "Red Rippers" landing aboard USS Ranger (CV 4), 1938. The tail surfaces are green and the lower engine cowling is red.

F/A-18F of VFA-11 "Red Rippers" landing aboard USS Nimitz (CVN 68)

[Llarry]

I've previously explained the three-color camouflage scheme used by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft -- and some Allies -- in the Pacific in World War II: sea blue as seen from above, white as seen from below and intermediate on the sides to blend the two. But there was one more feature, a bit less obvious, to help make the aircraft a bit of an indistinct blob when seen at a distance. That feature was called countershading. Horizontal features such as wings and horizontal tails naturally produce a dark area underneath due to the shadow of sunlight; countershading attempts to minimize this with a white area that is designed to lighten the shadow effect.

Here are several illustrations of countershading on TBMs. Note the white areas on the fuselage where the wings and tail join. In the last photo, there is a small area of countershading on the PBY's tail.