Back To Page 3 In the south, the number and strength of the Viet Cong attacks against US and ARVN forces grew in intensity as a function of the North’s ability to move more men and more effective weapons into South Vietnam. These attacks now were occurring throughout the country. The attacks were further from the […]
Back To Page 2 The Middle Years – 1965 to 1970 Something was causing the nature of the SEA conflict to change as the war entered the middle 60s. That something was the North Vietnamese escalation of the war. The political instability in the south had encouraged the North Vietnamese leaders to press their military, […]
Back To Page 1 The tempo of the ground war through the first half of the 1960s was relatively slow. The primary enemy force was the ‘Viet Cong,’ a force of Vietnamese communist guerilla soldiers. The VC did not engage in large battles with US or ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam), but, instead fought […]
Back To Page 5 Inherent problems in early disturbed reticle LCOSS There were immediate problems when the first LCOSS gunsights were introduced in WW2. The first problem area was the acceptance of the system by pilots and aircraft maintenance personnel. The system was mechanically complicated and required careful and exact maintenance by trained technicians. This […]
Back To Page 4 Lead Computing Optical Sight Systems (LCOSS) Understanding how LCOSS came about is to understand gun ballistics. So that is where we will start. Up to now, our discussion of the basics has pretty much dealt with the behavior of a single round. Now, we will move on to investigating to what […]
Back To Page 3 OK!! Enough of that stadiametric stuff. Let’s get back to our review of fixed sights. One problem that pilots had with using the ring and bead sight was that the pilot’s head had to be held perfectly still when lining up the ring and bead. This was hard to do while […]
Back To Page 2 Stadiametric ranging Stadiametric ranging uses the relationship of small angles and the arcs they subtend over a given distance. Whew!! I hope you are still with me!! Here is the basic idea. We all are familiar with how we use clock code to define a position around our aircraft. Each one […]
Back To Page 1 The Fixed Sight The first question that comes to some folk’s minds is what does the word ‘fixed’ mean. Simply put, it refers to a sighting reference that does not move. There are several types. Up to the beginning of WW2, the most common was the ‘ring and bead’ sight. Note […]
Back To Page 7 My next priority is to check my dive parameters…how close am I? I first check dive angle; it’s the most critical parameter…all other corrections will be made with this in mind. I glance down to my instrument panel and the attitude indicator (no HUD in a F-4). Durn…I see that I am a […]
Back To Page 5 We are now at the heart of the AOP matter. If those math wizards can compute the IPP at roll out, then they can just as easily compute the angle between the target and the flight path (AOP). The problem in the past was always how to know where the flight path […]
Back To Page 4 How To Determine The Roll Out Sight Picture Here’s where we get back to what we wanted to talk about in the first place…aiming the aircraft at the proper aim off point. The previous discussion only had one purpose…to show us how to get to the correct roll in point. What happens […]
Back To Page 6 Putting it All Together – A Typical Dive Bomb Pass I’ll begin with the approach to the target. I’m flying my trusty F-4. I have already chosen my desired release parameters, so in my approach I’ll fly to my roll in point. I’ve computed an IPP…to use the IPP, I’ll have to […]
