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Well, you got one post out of that.
Sigh...
Anyhoo, I spent quite a bit of time today trying to figure out what to post for Friday (which is tomorrow as I write, today -- or later -- as you read). I thought about writing about the use of synchronization gear and how it arose during World War One, I learned as a youth (no, it wasn't shortly after the Great War ended) that Anthony Fokker invented the thing. Seems the story is more complex than that. I realized that when I saw the thousands of barrels of ink and scads of computer bytes which have been spilled and filled describing the increasing sophistication of firing a machine gun through one's propeller arc without blowing the damned thing off. Which leaves you with nothing to fight the drag of gravity.
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| The synchronization gear of a Messerschmitt Bf 109E is adjusted (January 1941). A wooden disk attached to the propeller is used to indicate where each round passes through the propeller arc. Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-2006-0002 (Source) |
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| Fokker Synchronization gear set up for ground firing test. The wooden disc records the point on the disc of the propeller where each round passed. The diagram below shows the probable result for a properly working gear. Inherent inaccuracies in both the gear and the triggering of the gun itself, small faults in normal service ammunition, and even the differing RPM rates of the engine, all combine to produce a "spread" of hits, rather than every bullet striking the disc in precisely the same spot. |
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| Correctly functioning synchronization gear: all rounds fired well within "safe" zone (well clear of propeller). |
Science!
Of course, jet engines obviate the need for all that.
I'm hoping that the four-day weekend I am currently enjoying will allow me to rest up and provide you with, as Suldog would say, "More and better stuff."
Before I go, Chanter RHT447 provided me with a link to inspire my efforts on the throne (which is where a drummer sits) as I endeavor to be "the man behind the kit" (which is the proper term - I guess - for the drum set/kit). All pomposity and wishful thinking aside, this young lady can play the drums like nobody's business.
This is the clip RHT447 provided a link to, great song and I love her take on it.
While perusing her channel over at the Tube o' You, this next one caught my ear, a bit more complicated (to me anyway) it's another great song by Dire Straits. (Hey, it ain't all Foo Fighters avec moi.)
I like the way she has the cameras positioned so you can see exactly what she's doing. I am getting conversant enough with drumming technique so that I can kinda tie it all together. Now it's just getting the two feet and two hands to all cooperate. Right now my drumming style can best be described as spastic, uncoordinated, yet enthusiastic. Yup, herding cats I am.
This next one is a lot more complex. Damn but the lady knows her stuff.
Yeah man, I should'a learned to play them drums...
Working on it!
I would've posted the clip of the 7-year old boy playing the drums, and playing them quite well, that Tuna sent me, but damn it, my morale is low enough regarding my progress in the percussion area!
My son in law is a drummer. He told me how it sorta "came" to him one day while practicing (after LOTS AND LOTS of practicing). Now one hand can be doing something and the other doing an entirely different thing, while his feet are..... I think his brain split down the middle then halved again.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, I didn't need to have that skill set.
Interesting about the timing of the guns. I can't wait to see what the cam lobes look like and how the gear worked. If it's mechanical, it automatically warrants review.
It is almost as if you need a brain for each appendage!
DeleteSome people have talent in this genre.........me..... not AT ALL. Good luck Sarge and have fun. That's what matters at the end of the day.... :)
ReplyDeleteHave fun, Aye!
Delete😎
Glad you enjoying the pursuit of drumming - have a friend that's pretty good at it, I'm impressed by his 'split brain' as STxAR terms it. And along with the Texas connection, the drum parts of some of ZZ Top's songs are pretty nice.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your weekend, I hope Dorian doesn't make anyone's life too miserable. Thoughts and prayers to anyone in his path (Beans, perhaps).
Yes, loves me some ZZ Top.
DeleteHey AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteYeah, I am having "The Doldrums" on posting right now, There is so much I want to blog about, but I am "just tired". Not enough to take a sabbatical" as they say. I know when I was younger, I was a heck of an "Air Drummer". Had dreams of becoming a drummer in a rock in roll band, but alas....Real life interfered and now I am too old to go on tour, LOL
Yes, the doldrums explains it rather well. Becalmed I am for the moment. Looking for a zephyr.
DeleteMy father spent some time as an aircraft armorer at Randolph Field during WWII and he told me that the first indication of synchronizing problems were missing propeller blades, and the second was unexpected vent holes in props.
ReplyDeleteIf we put the propeller on the rear of the aircraft that also obviates the need for the synchronizing setup.
There were a fair amount of pusher aircraft in WWI.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pusher_aircraft_by_configuration
And several pusher design fighter aircraft were built and tested by the Army Air Corps in WWII.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vultee_XP-54
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss-Wright_XP-55_Ascender
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_XP-56_Black_Bullet
The only thing that stops me from being a musician is my staggering lack of the smallest amount of musical talent in any category.
Thank you for the post, and thank you for the opportunity to use the word obviate in a sentence.
The pusher configuration did solve the problem, not sure they ever performed all that well compared to the tractor.
DeleteI recall reading somewhere that some pushers had issues with spent shell casings going to the rear in the slip stream and getting swatted by the prop.
DeleteWow, I hadn't thought of that, but it could cause problems.
DeleteKid's got some serious chops, that's for sure. I keep saying I'm going to pick up the guitar again, once I get some free time. Not sure when that'll happen, maybe when The Queen graduates high school in ~ 11 years? I'm sure that my bride will find plenty of tasks for me to ensure that I'm not idle at that point.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the eventual synchro post. IIRC, the main reason the U.S. and British designs went away from synchronized guns in WW2 designs was that the fire rate was by necessity lower than wing mounted guns. Which presented an aiming issue. Not a problem for the German and Japanese designs which used the lighter machine guns to align the target before opening up with the heavier cannons.
(Oh, and I hear you on the post doldrums. The post that's supposed to be up on my blog today isn't, because I was just plain too tired to get it written before going to bed. Python and C++ are currently eating my brain at work.)
She's good, isn't she?
DeleteI plan to pick up the guitar again once the finger heals. That might be a while, good thing I have the drum kit!
Python and C++ are notorious brain-eaters, DAMHIK!
Well, like Super Chicken said, "You know the job was dangerous when you took it!" I knew that scraping the rust from some of my long neglecting skills was going to be a challenge. But I wanted to move out of QA and be a software engineer finally, so... yeah.
DeleteBetter to feel challenged and engaged than bored, right?
Challenged and engaged is the only way to fly. Which is why I got out of software development and into system integration and test.
DeleteQA? Dear Lord, how did you ever survive?
Turns out that "Too stubborn to quit", "Good at breaking software", and "Really needs a job" help combine to produce a decent QA career. I don't mind, I feel like it's made me a better developer to have spent a decade or so living on the other side of the fence.
Delete"Good at breaking software" - as a systems tester that's nearly my job description!
DeleteOK,Gonna show my total lack of musicality. Why does she have two cymbals in front of her? One aspect of my lack of musicality is tone deafness. I can't hear any difference between the two. Second, what is the purpose of the earphones? Listening to Mozart while playing Dire Straits? Inquiring minds....
ReplyDeleteAh, excellent question. She has two crash cymbals. one to her left (towards the front), one to her right, just inboard of the right crash is a ride cymbal, farthest to her right is the "high hat" (two cymbals mounted facing in opposite directions, pedal controlled to bring 'em together for a different sound). The crash cymbals (both of slightly different tones) have a longer dwell, hit and the sound continues, the ride tends to be of shorter dwell, and in my experience (at least on my kit) a higher pitch.
DeleteNow ask me about the different drums. 😎
Hhmm, maybe I should do a drum video, not playing, Lordy, not yet! 😜
In the last century, I played cymbals for the AFROTC Drum and Bugle Corps for Washington U. in St. Louis. It was not pretty.
DeleteNo doubt you were enthusiastic. 😉
DeleteJuvat, the headphones are most likely playing the track which she's drumming along with. It affords a better experience than would a speaker playing in the room, since your drums and cymbals could drown it out a bit. Sarge, I've seen (and might have shared some with you) quite a few "child prodigy" drummers, and even guitarists, which are all seemingly amazing. It all comes down to consistent practice of course, so their "natural" ability is most likely just well tuned skill. I once read that anyone can be an expert and at the absolute top of their field/skill/sport if they just dedicate the time. I once met a concert pianist that had only been playing for 10 years. It's hard to be that devoted to learning the skill though.
DeleteFinding the time is what I'm finding to be the hardest thing to do.
DeleteI remember seeing a film about synchronization of props and guns some time... a long time... ago.
ReplyDeleteAs for drums, I know two drummers, both of whom earn a living playing guitar.
Neither one has to promote his drumming to get a gig as a drummer, but each would prefer to pick, strum, and sing.
I like the drums, you get to sit down. 😉
DeleteGlad you like the music, Sarge. You give us free ice cream until the muse runs dry. Figured it was your turn to receive.
ReplyDeleteI do like the music, and she is such a delight to watch. With that Mona Lisa smile, you just know she is a natural playing from the heart. Rock on. My percussion talent begins and ends with my thumbs on my steering wheel while driving.
Synchronization. Well, sorta. In my younger days, I knew a gentleman who served in the Pacific aboard ship during WWII (don't recall what ship now). He recalled that during their first aerial attack, a gunner on a .50 cal tracked an attacking plane right across the superstructure above the bridge. He recalled that they installed vertical steel bars to limit the gun travel after that. He laughed and remarked to me "They sure got them f***in' bars up in a hurry!".
There are tales of aerial gunners shooting up their own aircraft's, well, tail. Think the top turret on a number of aircraft, if you put stops on the gun, what do you do if the enemy comes in high, so your shots would clear the tail? I guess the watchword is "be careful where you shoot."
DeleteMore info here. Scroll down to "Testing The Fire Cutoffs".
Deletehttps://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/AirGunnery/TURRETS.html
Wow! What a great reference. Thanks!
DeleteAs an amateur pianist I can tell you 2 things: practice is where it's and and the other is a quote from Beethoven: Even if the wrong note is played at least you are trying. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteHow do you get to Carnegie Hall?
DeletePractice, practice, practice!
Having fun I am!
Fokker E-series brought the first generation of German Aces during the so called Fokker Scourge...
ReplyDeleteAnd the names of Immelman and Boelcke will live forever in minds of fighter pilots all over the world.
AS well they should, brilliant fighter pilots.
DeleteDrummers wear headphones to hear a click track (metronome beat), to keep in sync with the rest of the band.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mary.
DeleteThanks Mary!
DeleteAnother reason, I watched a couple of Sina's "blooper reels," she's listening to the music she's playing along to, not sure if that's without the drum track or not.
DeleteYes, musical talent, i ain't got any . but these two have it in spades;;;
ReplyDeleteRodrigo & Gabriela....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT9hvyDvKHA
Love it! Especially the flamenco influence. Man, that is one brilliant duo, I'll be listening to them a lot I think.
DeleteYou can see the pipe cages on PT boats that kept the fifty calibers from shooting up their own boat.
ReplyDeleteWell, the boat can maneuver freely, bombers can't.
DeleteNot good to shoot up your own boat!
...an interesting (and sometimes funny) account of the development of aerial warfare (and the problems of synchronizing guns through the prop) in WW1 is given in Lou Cameron's “Iron Men with Wooden Wing” (1967)...also it touches on when the future of aircraft diverged from lighter to heavier than air aircraft..
ReplyDeleteYet another book for the list...
DeleteBeen attending to Dorian.
ReplyDeleteAt first reading, I thought you said "the dang of gravity"! Got to thinking. There is some truth to that too.
Dang, too much drag.
DeleteI get it.
Music? I can play the radio okay, but that's it.
ReplyDeleteI was looking for a photo I had seen of John M. Browning with an aircraft doing some sort of gun test, but did not find it. I did find this excellent account of Browning machine guns in U.S. air service.
https://nuclearcompanion.com/from-glory-to-disgrace-the-browning-aircraft-machine-gun-story/
John Blackshoe
Nice article, thanks John!
Delete