r/AviationHistory • u/Heartfeltzero • 9d ago

WW2 Era Aerial Gunner Test Form. Details in comments.

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193 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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14

u/Heartfeltzero 9d ago

This test is dated March 18th, 1942. It appears to have been used for training Allied airmen or aerial gunners in aircraft recognition and gunnery range estimation. The test taker identified each aircraft by silhouette and marked an ‘X’ to indicate the correct point of aim when engaging the target.

4

u/tinkertaylorspry 9d ago

Also, how long to wait until fire … count second…etc

2

u/Key-Sir1108 8d ago

I think its funny how they marked horz flight path, but clearly ea aircraft pic was tilted up or down changing path. This is such cool history, i love seeing letters, forms, diagrams from this era, thank you for posting.

2

u/BertBert2019GT 7d ago

is the horz flight not referencing the plane that the gunner/test taker is firing from?

1

u/Key-Sir1108 7d ago

Maybe so, i took it as the opposing flight path.

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u/BoredCop 6d ago

Correct.

1

u/BertBert2019GT 6d ago

i wonder how ol' Cowie scored. My not-an-aerial-gunner but i stayed in a holiday inn impression is that a lot of these X's would be hard misses

edit to add that i replied before seeing your write up below 👍

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u/Heartfeltzero 7d ago

My pleasure!

1

u/BoredCop 6d ago

No, it clearly says that's the speed and direction of the gunnery aircraft and that they're firing horizontally to the side (beam) meaning the target aircraft are at the same altitude and off directly to one side.

That fits with the marked X aiming spots, the gunner has to take both his own speed and the target's speed and heading into account. Some of those X marks, the correct one isn't the nearest to a plane silhouette- correct point of aim can be way off to one side so it is easy for us to be confuse by an X near one plane being the aiming mark for one of the other silhouettes. Notice how the X marks for the head-on silhouettes are way to the left? That's because the bullets will be travelling to the right at 160 knots along with the aircraft the gunner is shooting from. So for a head-on target, he has to aim off to his left to compensate for his own movement to the right. And for targets moving to his right, the speed of both aircraft sort of cancel out so he doesn't have to lead in the horizontal direction but does have to lead in the climbing or descending direction.

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u/Aboo9117 5d ago

I used to teach Blackhawk aerial gunnery, this is so fucking cool

1

u/good_at_pies 7d ago

reminded of the WW2 British barrack-room poem 'the fucking thing was ours'

1

u/Dave_A480 6d ago

Student did not read directions, failed to estimate range... Retrain....

-3

u/BloodRush12345 9d ago

I don't recon they scored to well! Must of been a test early in training.

1

u/MoistFW190 7d ago

They also couldnt just google a name of a plane like we can

1

u/BloodRush12345 7d ago

It wasn't a dig against them. Merely an observation.