Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ICBM pilot]

wouldn't prototypes be part of the designing process?

[Ukrainian Ranger]

That prototype is immediately useful in scouting and logistic. Ability to transport 200kg from one place to another is useful...

 Designing more complex airships right from the start is unwise and have higher risk of failure

[Aseaheru]

Right, I am removing my design for this round so it wont fail miserably. I now vote for 1,3,15b,16 and 20.

As for material for the gas cells, its probably best to use goldbeater's skin.

[ICBM pilot]

The most it would be able to carry would probably be around 110kg assuming that the pilot has no weapons

[Aseaheru]

Who said that the 200kg capacity isent after crew is figured in?

[Dorsidwarf]

Why has nobody voted for my suggestion to start developing Belt-fed artillery guns? Its crazy, it fits dieselpunk, and it would give us an unholy advantage.

[10ebbor10]

Why has nobody voted for my suggestion to start developing Belt-fed artillery guns? Its crazy, it fits dieselpunk, and it would give us an unholy advantage.

I didn't know what exactly you were intending. Most importantly, the caliber. I mean, belt fed artillery existed, several Anti air cannons worked that way.

The most it would be able to carry would probably be around 110kg assuming that the pilot has no weapons

Probably a bit more. Maybe a lot more if they decide to skimp on ballast. An airship needs a decent safety margin, otherwise it has no capability for vertical maneuvering.


Also, shooting down the engines on one side of a craft never works. After all, neither airships, nor planes, nor boats use their engines to steer, they use a rudder. Both a plane and a airship can fly with only engines on 2 sides. (To be fair, commercial planes can't because they loose lift and spiral out of control. No such problem with an airship).

[ICBM pilot]

why isn't any body voting for my machine gun?

[Dorsidwarf]

Even in WW2, antiaircraft guns were rarely belt-fed. The 40mm Bofors, a commonly used gun at the higher-power end of the scale was magazine-fed, not belt fed, with magazines of around four shots.

Some low-calibre guns were belted, but these were more along the lines of adapted machineguns.

In addition, the high power (single shell) AA cannons were, although sometimes adapted into antitank guns, much smaller/lower barrel size than the artillery units of the era. The German 88mm Flak was one of the best, but only on a par with the guns used in many medium tanks of the era. The most powerful ww2 antiaircraft cannon was the 120mm M1 gun, capable of firing explosive bursts up to 18 kilometers into the air. It was never used in combat.


This gun's size puts it on a par with the common light artillery of the time, but is dwarfed by the largest combat artillery used by e US during the second world war, the 240mm howitzer.

So, flak cannons and artillery were separated by a blurred line, especially with the best period AA gun, the German 88. However, guns of this power were definitely NOT beltfed - even the 30 and 40mm were not equipped with a belt feeding drive.



And all this is in world war two, where the importance of anti-air artillery hand been fully realised due to ww1.

[Aseaheru]

You had the quad machine guns that where belt fed and where AA weapons.

[10ebbor10]

why isn't any body voting for my machine gun?

It's all about the details and description, I'm afraid. Machine gun doesn't stand out, I'm afraid.

[Dorsidwarf]

You had the quad machine guns that where belt fed and where AA weapons.

Yes, I mentioned these. But there really is no way to compare the quad machineguns to artillery.


I also ignored talking about the Rail Guns, because they were obsolete at the time I was talking about ( if still desperately used by the Germans as the war neared it's end)

[Aseaheru]

Well, they where not very useful, but they where not obsolete.

[Dorsidwarf]

Effectively obsolete. The Rail Guns were built for an age of static trench warfare. Their 1000 pound shells had flight times of more than a minute, so with the high speed of allied advance, they did not have much effect. Aero plane bombing had replaced the Rail Guns, but Germany had no bombers to spare.

[Aseaheru]

True. Even with Hitler turning every fighter design into bombers they ran out of them or fuel.