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The girl of 13 who helped win the Battle of Britain: How a maths prodigy cracked the secret to turning our planes into ultimate killing machines, as new book reveals stunning images from the conflict
UK Daily Mail ^ | July 9, 2020 | Kathryn Knight

Posted on 07/10/2020 2:52:40 AM PDT by C19fan

The work was done by lamplight, over a small kitchen table in North London. Night after night throughout the early months of 1934, Captain Fred Hill and his 13-year-old daughter Hazel burned the midnight oil, plotting graphs and labouring over complex algorithms. It was tiring, unrewarding work but they both sensed how vital it would prove to be.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: dsj03; math; war
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What an interesting story. Who says math is not useful. Spitfires and Hurricanes would have been seriously short of firepower if only armed with 4 .303 machine guns. I believe the original designs called for a cannon through the nose but the Brits could never work that out.
1 posted on 07/10/2020 2:52:40 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

Thanks for posting this.


2 posted on 07/10/2020 3:01:44 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: C19fan

Thanks for posting this.


3 posted on 07/10/2020 3:01:44 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: C19fan

Awesome photos!


4 posted on 07/10/2020 3:15:16 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (China kills over 500,000 and the sheeple sleep. Cops kill one person, and cities burn.)
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To: C19fan

Popular Mechanics had an interesting article on fighter aircraft armament in 1942. They tried to reduce firepower to horsepower, by rating horsepower of the various armaments, an admittedly inadequate metric.

The Germans and Japanese favored heavier caliber guns with lower rates of fire, good for lobbing shells at bomber formations from a distance, and carrying a high explosive charge in order to do damage when they hit. 30-caliber seems like a pea shooter by comparison. The Americans tended to use Browning 50-cal for fighters, with six or eight on the wings. The P-38 had all its guns in the center nacelle, firing straight ahead, and two 20 mm cannon, which gave it awesome firepower.


5 posted on 07/10/2020 3:23:58 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets ("Women's intuition" gave us the Salem witch trials and Kavanaugh hearings. Change my mind.)
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To: C19fan

There was ample room in the Spitfire wing for 4 guns in each. It was one of the advantages of the elliptical wing... a happy coincidence that an aerodynamic feature lent itself to the ability to carry extra guns.

This article is a bit overdone. The work was done in 1934. The Spitfire was still on the drawing board. The Hurricane also wasn’t introduced until 1937.


6 posted on 07/10/2020 3:28:21 AM PDT by Tallguy (Facts be d@mned! The narrative must be protected at all costs!)
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To: C19fan
For informational purposes only unless you know how to spoof British web addresses: The Battle of Britain - 3 Days That Saved The Nation
7 posted on 07/10/2020 3:30:26 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

The USAF (Then Army Air Corps) had a lot of pre-conceived notions about fighter design. On such notion was that pursuit planes (fighters) weren’t to have mechanically supercharged engines. Another was armament. It was felt that cannon weren’t required and so the USAF went pretty much the entire war without a decent aerial cannon.

The exceptions were the P-38 & P-39 programs which were both conceived as interceptors. The P-38 did get saddled with turbo-superchargers because that was all the USAF had funded, but the P-39 tinkered with a mechanical supercharger that was later deleted. But on account of their roles as bomber killers they both got cannons in the nose. It really wasn’t until Packard began building the Merlin V-12 under license that the USAAF got a competitive fighter engine with a 2-stage intercooled supercharger. Prior to that only the American radial engine designs really were competitive from a horsepower standpoint.


8 posted on 07/10/2020 3:40:52 AM PDT by Tallguy (Facts be d@mned! The narrative must be protected at all costs!)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

The P-38 had 4 .50 caliber Browning mgs and 1 20mm cannon all in the nose of the center nacelle.

Having 4 mgs might seem as a disadvantage as most US WW-II fighters had 6 .50 calibers. However by having the guns clustered around the 20mm canon the firepower of the .50s was concentrated and the pilots did not have to worry about having to be at the optimum range where the wing guns met at.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}


9 posted on 07/10/2020 4:00:55 AM PDT by alfa6
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To: C19fan
Germany is often erroneously thought of as having the best weaponry then, but not always the case.

German bombers were only two engines, lacking the range and load carrying capacity of Allied bombers. Germany's famous panzers had relatively narrow tracks which were unable to cope with Russian mud and snow. And the Wehrmacht relied on horse drawn wagons for most of their logistics. 80% of German infantry traveled on foot because the Wehrmacht lacked mechanized transport.
 

10 posted on 07/10/2020 4:01:29 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (Guide me, O thou great redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.)
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To: C19fan

later


11 posted on 07/10/2020 4:02:00 AM PDT by gattaca ("Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan)
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To: C19fan

Looking forward to the BBC documentary...thanks for the story.


12 posted on 07/10/2020 4:05:45 AM PDT by exPBRrat (.)
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To: alfa6
Don't know if you've seen the episode of Dogfights, where Robin Olds describes scoring a kill in glide mode with a P-38. Great story.
13 posted on 07/10/2020 4:09:15 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets ("Women's intuition" gave us the Salem witch trials and Kavanaugh hearings. Change my mind.)
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To: C19fan

Compare with today’s 13 Year Olds with billions of times more computing power in their cell phone.

Well. at least ours are pretty good at killing zombies and finding porn.


14 posted on 07/10/2020 4:24:41 AM PDT by Oscar in Batangas ( January 20, 2017, High Noon. The end of an error.)
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To: Nailbiter

Ping


15 posted on 07/10/2020 4:27:28 AM PDT by IncPen ("Inside of every progressive is a Totalitarian screaming to get out" ~ David Horowitz)
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To: C19fan

Very interesting indeed.


16 posted on 07/10/2020 4:30:38 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Just Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election!)
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To: C19fan

A life well lived.


17 posted on 07/10/2020 4:33:38 AM PDT by Gamecock (We shouldn't be surprised at God hating Esau. We should be surprised that he loved Jacob. (RCSproul))
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To: C19fan
Night after night throughout the early months of 1934, Captain Fred Hill and his 13-year-old daughter Hazel (above) burned the midnight oil, plotting graphs and labouring over complex algorithms
Night after night throughout the early months of 1934, Captain Fred Hill and his 13-year-old daughter Hazel (above) burned the midnight oil, plotting graphs and labouring over complex algorithms
18 posted on 07/10/2020 4:37:44 AM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: alfa6

Late versions of the F4F, the FM-1/FM-2, had only 4 mgs, but carried more ammo.

And the plane was used on escort carriers doing ASW.


19 posted on 07/10/2020 4:51:39 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

The P 38 had four .50’s and one 20mm.


20 posted on 07/10/2020 5:05:35 AM PDT by jmacusa (If we're all equal how is diversity our strength?)
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