World's largest cargo plane 'destroyed'

[red750]

Russia has "destroyed" the world's biggest cargo plane, Antonov-225 Mriya, according to Ukrainian authorities, who have vowed to rebuild the aircraft.

 

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-28/world-s-largest-plane-destroyed-in-ukraine-authorities-say/100868428

[RossK]

Antonov actually have a second AN-225 that was never finished.

Unfinished AN-225

Photo from a CNN article in 2018

Edited March 1 by RossK

[RossK]

It's gone, I dont understand why they would detroy it. surely a plane that can move 5 tanks around the country at 800km/h would have been an asset?

 

[red750]

43 minutes ago, RossK said:

It's gone, I dont understand why they would detroy it.

Because Putin is a criminal nut case. Look at the senseless destruction he is causing throughout Ukraine.

[onetrack]

The problem lies with poorly-trained artillery troops who cannot accurately position their shells on targets. However, many a time in war, artillery is simply fired in a general direction to provide a terror effect.

Howitzers are the actual weapon used for lobbing artillery shells over long distances.

 

Placing artillery fire accurately is a highly defined skill brought up to a high level by intensive training. Artillerymen are chosen for their maths skills as firing artillery accurately involves extremely complex maths calculations to be able to land shells on enemy positions, without landing them on your own troops, when close-quarter fighting is involved.

 

An initial ranging shot is usually fired about 100M further away from the requested artillery fire position, to ensure initial "rough" accuracy.

Howitzer barrel angles are then repositioned to bring the fire closer to the target, and good artillery pieces can lob shells within a 50M range over 10km or more.

Artillerymen even have to take into account the movement of the Earth as it rotates when they fire, as the shell spends quite a bit of time in travel through the air before it lands, and the Earth has moved in the meantime.

[kgwilson]

Artillery accuracy goes back a long way. in 1943 a single British 25 pounder destroyed the 3 leading Panzer tanks when it was mounted on high ground near Sidi Nasir in Tunisia during that battle. In total some 40 German tanks were lost during that battle including 8 new Tigers that were blown up by their crews when they were disabled by mines. 

 

I can't see how the earths rotation can alter artillery fire as the atmosphere moves with the earth. Only wind can change the trajectory as artillery shells do not get out of the atmosphere.

[onetrack]

Kevin, the Coriolis effect is what affects artillery shell travel over long distances. Not so important over short distances, but the effect is noticeable at long range. The 105mm Howitzer has a range of 11.7kms.

The M198 155mm Howitzer has a range of 18kms with standard shells, and up to 30kms with armour-piercing shells.

 

https://www.military.com/equipment/m198-howitzer#:~:text=The howitzer's maximum range is,WWII era M114 155mm howitzer.

 

https://socratic.org/questions/does-the-rotation-of-the-earth-have-any-effect-upon-artillery-fire

 

Edited March 7 by onetrack

[kgwilson]

I forgot about the Coriolis effect so that makes sense. So they would have to make adjustments left or right depending upon the number of degrees either side of East or West.

[Old Koreelah]

During The Great War, German gunners had to allow for earth’s rotation as they fired at Paris.

 

The gun was capable of firing a 106-kilogram shell to a range of 130 kilometres and a maximum altitude of 42.3 km —the greatest height reached by a human-made projectile until the first successful V-2 flight test in October 1942. At the start of its 182-second trajectory,^[1]: 33 each shell from the Paris Gun reached a speed of 1,640 m/s (5,904 km/h).

 

The distance was so far that the Coriolis effect—the rotation of the Earth—was substantial enough to affect trajectory calculations.

 

It took about three minutes for each giant shell to cover the distance to the city, climbing to an altitude of 40 km at the top of its trajectory. This was by far the highest point ever reached by a man-made object, so high that gunners, in calculating where the shells would land, had to take into account the rotation of the Earth. For the first time in warfare, deadly projectiles rained down on civilians from the stratosphere. This reduced drag from air resistance, allowing the shell to achieve a range of over 130 kilometres.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Gun

[Garfly]

 

 

 

[Student Pilot]

To save me sitting through 40 minutes of monotone, why wasn't it? From what perspective was it reported on? 
Thanks Captain Gazza 😁

[kgwilson]

So management disappeared to save their skins, the engine was replaced the day before the war but there was no-one left to make a decision & presumably find the money for the flight. I think he's right. The airline management will all go, a new airline will rise like the phoenix & grab all of the impounded Antonovs & raise the funds to rebuild 1 Mriya from the good bits of the old destroyed one and the partially built one. Ukraine has to win the war first though.

Edited April 18 by kgwilson