Chapter 214, The Last Large-Scale Air Battle 4
A volley of shells flew out of Heathfield's FW190D nose and wings, and then hit the P81 fighter in front of it hard.
"Damn it!" Listening to the crackling sound coming from the fuselage, Hughes knew that the guy in the back was definitely a veteran. At this moment, I was hit by at least seven or eight 20-mm shells, and if I was driving a P51 or a Spitfire or something with a thin skin and big stuffing, I was afraid that I would have to set off fireworks on the spot. But even a guy like P81, known as the "air-cooled four-thick skin", can't be unharmed by such a guy. Hughes saw that the thrust of the rear engine had dropped significantly, and apparently, it was damaged.
On the other hand, Heathfield was also depressed. Nima's, flying in front of himself is a tank? He had already hit more than a dozen 13mm machine gun bullets and seven or eight 20mm shells, and the plane had only dropped a few small fragments, and the propeller behind it was still spinning. At this time, Heathfield is really nostalgic for his FW190A4, if he is driving an FW190A4 now, with 4 20mm guns and two MK108s on the outside, such a distance, such a fierce long point shè, even if it is really a tank, he can beat it down
Hughes rolled to the right, then swooped down with the lever. Due to the torque of the propeller, the average fighter rolls to the left faster than to the right, so when attacked, most pilots are accustomed to making a sharp turn to the left to get rid of their opponents. Because it is much faster to complete a sharp turn to the left than to complete a sharp turn to the right. However, because the P81 has two propellers, one in front and one in the rear, the torque brought by the propellers cancels each other out, so the roll rate is the same whether it is left or right. Therefore, almost all pilots, after flying the P81, the first flying habit that needs to be changed is to make a sharp turn to the right when attacked. Because most enemy planes roll to the right slower than the P81, by the time they complete a 90-degree roll to the right, the P81 has already turned some distance.
But this time, Hughes clearly felt that his plane's roll was much slower than before. With such a roll speed, it is impossible to get rid of the FW190, which is known for its fast roll. Are you really going to skydive? What a shame!
Just as Hughes had predicted, Heathfield easily followed his movements. Heathfield once again put the pair of gloves into the shère aura, and then pressed the shè button hard. This time, however, things did not go as he wished, and neither of the two machine guns went off, and the two machine guns were mute after only two shots.
"Damn it! No bullets! Heathfield was so angry that he wanted to smash the sight in front of him. He slid sideways to give up the attacking position and said to the wingman, "You attack!" ”
But the process gave Hughes the most precious time. Now that Hughes's plane was in a dive, it wouldn't be so easy to catch him again. What's worse is that they have also been targeted by other p81s at this time.
Boynton was the first to react, when he had just shot down a BF109G and pulled up the plane, when he saw his subordinates being attacked and the plane damaged, and at the same time heard Hughes's cries for help on the radio. He immediately swooped down on the enemy plane with a sharp turn, and his wingman swooped down on his own.
Heathfield's move to give up the attack to his wingman saved his life, but put his wingman in danger. When his wingman was in attack position, Boyynton naturally targeted his wingman. And at this time, a flaw in the FW190 family of fighters affected them again. Like almost all German fighters, the FW190 series fighters have a rather limited field of vision, especially in the rear, which is even worse. So when the Boyynton crew swooped down from behind them, none of them noticed. Originally, if the German rookie pilots around him could have seen it. If they had a little more experience, they would have reminded Heathfield of them at this time. It's a pity that they are just rookies, and now they are in a mess under the attack of the Americans. Those who are being attacked, of course, don't bother to remind them, even those who are not actually attacked, because they are panicked, think they are being attacked. So, there was no other person who made a jǐng notice to them at Heathfield. In this way, the hunter has no idea that he has become prey.
Heathfield's wingman Evans was trying to catch up with the clumsy enemy plane, because in the battle with the P51D just now, his fighter did not take on the task of the main attack, so he had a lot of ammunition to spare, so even if the distance was not close enough, he would from time to time use the 13mm machine gun with a higher degree of jīng in the nose to hit a few short points, so that it could further cause damage to the enemy aircraft, and secondly, it could also bring greater psychological pressure to the enemy pilots. Let him make the wrong move in a panic.
However, at this time, although Hughes was still very ashamed, he was not panicked and afraid at all. Because he had already heard Boynton's voice on the radio.
"Attract him, let me shoot him down!"
Boynton spoke to Hughes as he quickly approached his prey. Pushed and pulled by two high-horsepower engines, the P81 in Boynton had reached speeds close to 900 km/h in a dive. At this speed, the compression effect of the airfoil of an average fighter will cause its cāo control xìng to drop to a mess. However, due to the use of laminar flow wings, swept wings, wing knives and other technologies, the control of the P81 at such speeds has hardly dropped at all. The high speed itself is not necessarily terrible, just like in the history of Ron's original time and space, the last modification of the German BF109 series fighter BF109K14 has reached a level flight speed of 760 kilometers per hour, far exceeding the US military's P51D. However, the significance of this top speed is very limited, because the cāo surface on the wing and tail of the BF109K14, which does not use layered wings, has long since lost its effectiveness due to the severe compression effect of the wing surface before such a speed is reached. The BF109K14, which flies at a speed of more than 700 km, is actually a manned rocket that can only run in a straight line. But once the high speed and control can be combined, it will be extremely terrifying.
Just like now, with a high speed of nearly 200 km/h above his opponent, Boynton quickly approached his opponent's tail, and the high-speed cāo control xìng ability of P81 out of Sè allowed him to steadily enter the shè aperture.
Boynton lowered a flap to allow his speed to drop a little so that he could have a longer time to hit. Then he started firing at that FW190D.
Six 20mm rifled guns together spewed deadly flames at its victims, and in just one second, about 100 rounds of 20mm shells were fired. Because the shells fired by the Americans' 20mm rifled guns had a higher muzzle velocity than the Germans' 20mm guns or even the Americans' own .50 caliber aviation machine guns, the guns also possessed surprisingly good jīng degrees. At least a quarter of these 100 shells hit the opponent. Although the FW190D is also a relatively strong fighter, the lethality of more than 20 rounds of 20mm shells is not something that this aircraft can withstand. One of its wings was cut off in half, and black smoke began to emit from the plane.
Boynton pulled up the plane, and if any enemy plane hadn't exploded in his own air, the wingman behind him would have followed him and made a mistake with a little shè.
However, Boyynton's wingman did not get such an opportunity. Because when he was about to replenish a few more shells, the plane exploded into pieces.
"Not sooner or later, but at this time, it can be seen that it is a fallacy!" Boynton's wingman, Matthews, couldn't help but curse in his heart. If this plane is blown up a little later, he can still make up for two shots, and have a good time; If the plane had exploded earlier, he would have had time to attack with another target.
The wingman was startled by the fireworks, and he hurriedly made a barrel roll to avoid a possible attack on him. When he was sure that he had not been bitten, Heathfield found himself covered in sweat and his hand holding the cāo rod trembling slightly.
Hughes, who turned the corner from the situation, now has time to carefully inspect his plane, the power of the rear engine has dropped by about 20 percent, and he does not dare to give the rear engine a greater load now, so he can only close the throttle valve, which causes the output power of the rear engine to actually be less than half of the intact state. Several 13mm bullets were fired on the tail of the pendulum, and the rudder was broken. At the same time, the left ailerons were also badly damaged, which led to the fact that now the roll rate of the aircraft has dropped a lot. Fortunately, through the dive, his fighter still gained a high speed, which was enough to ensure that he escaped the other German fighters and returned home.
Under the continuous attack, the rookie pilots of the Luftwaffe finally collapsed. They began to flee in all directions, ignoring their previous orders. But in this era, which propeller fighter can get rid of the P81? In the end, Boyynton took those fighters with him and achieved a big victory. They shot down thirty-four enemy planes in one go, and they paid the price of only one fighter plane seriously damaged and four aircraft slightly damaged. At the same time, in the vicinity of several other airfields, the fighters of the Ninth Air Force were also fighting the Germans.