Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2002 8:21 am
Why Drongo, I'm sure I have no idea what you could possibly mean by that!
Re: the B-17, what sort of load are we talking about here? Seems to me that in addition to the mass of the plane itself, you also have to add in the mass of any fuel and ordnance aboard; then to be really thorough you should also figure in the energy released when the fuel burns and the bombs go off, though yeah, technically that's not KE. Anyway. If you had a B-17 that was crashing an enemy ship because it was crippled before reaching its release point, then you may well have considerable fuel remaining, plus a full bomb load - I suspect that's going to be a non-trivial addition.
Re: the B-17, what sort of load are we talking about here? Seems to me that in addition to the mass of the plane itself, you also have to add in the mass of any fuel and ordnance aboard; then to be really thorough you should also figure in the energy released when the fuel burns and the bombs go off, though yeah, technically that's not KE. Anyway. If you had a B-17 that was crashing an enemy ship because it was crippled before reaching its release point, then you may well have considerable fuel remaining, plus a full bomb load - I suspect that's going to be a non-trivial addition.