02.04.2010, 21:55
Makes sense considering the chemical composition is also burning and the weight of the round changes the further it flies.
I think the question to ask is at what ranges do the tracers become increasingly unreliable or inaccurate?
For a 50 caliber tracer round, the velocity is higher than that of an AP round, but also slightly lighter.
There is little detail on how accurate they are but some pilots have mentioned they also curve and spiral after about 300yards.
This may or may not be such a big deal in an air war where most targets are being shot at with in 300 yards, however shooting at ground objects it can be increasingly difficult to follow a bead to its target but its also shown that those bullets tend to follow there intended path and don't require deflection.
We also see the invention of the Incendiary round, which was initially designed to emit a flash on impact to let the pilot know where or if his shots were hitting. These are not the same as tracer rounds, although they do have Incendiary Tracer rounds.
As for cannon rounds, tracer rounds seem to give a wider spread than the actual bullet path because the tracer element itself actually makes the projectile spin and flutter. Again, cannon weapons are typically used beyond 200 meters so it doesn't make much difference. This is reason to expect that lighter caliber tracer rounds are used in conjunction with cannon rounds to help get a better indicator of where cannon rounds are expected to travel at longer ranges, particularly in the case of heavy cannons like Mk108s.
I also read that load outs for on P-47 and P-51s carried minimal tracer rounds on only two guns and that tracer rounds were included in the last 50 rounds of every gun to act as an indicator to the pilot that he only had a few seconds of trigger time left, which for a ground attack mission might be reserved for the return flight.
Bill
I think the question to ask is at what ranges do the tracers become increasingly unreliable or inaccurate?
For a 50 caliber tracer round, the velocity is higher than that of an AP round, but also slightly lighter.
There is little detail on how accurate they are but some pilots have mentioned they also curve and spiral after about 300yards.
This may or may not be such a big deal in an air war where most targets are being shot at with in 300 yards, however shooting at ground objects it can be increasingly difficult to follow a bead to its target but its also shown that those bullets tend to follow there intended path and don't require deflection.
We also see the invention of the Incendiary round, which was initially designed to emit a flash on impact to let the pilot know where or if his shots were hitting. These are not the same as tracer rounds, although they do have Incendiary Tracer rounds.
As for cannon rounds, tracer rounds seem to give a wider spread than the actual bullet path because the tracer element itself actually makes the projectile spin and flutter. Again, cannon weapons are typically used beyond 200 meters so it doesn't make much difference. This is reason to expect that lighter caliber tracer rounds are used in conjunction with cannon rounds to help get a better indicator of where cannon rounds are expected to travel at longer ranges, particularly in the case of heavy cannons like Mk108s.
I also read that load outs for on P-47 and P-51s carried minimal tracer rounds on only two guns and that tracer rounds were included in the last 50 rounds of every gun to act as an indicator to the pilot that he only had a few seconds of trigger time left, which for a ground attack mission might be reserved for the return flight.
Bill