About WW2 fighter aircraft firing power

[Rob Philips]

Have made an application in Excel, that calculates and graphically shows pattern density and size, as a function of
- number of guns
- their firing rates
- the distances between the guns
- the harmonisation type
- the harmonisation distance
- the distance to target
Leading to pattern densities and sizes per second of firing.

This is to be expanded with more harmonisation strategies, and all other parameters that are not related to pilot skill. This should enable to play with parameters, and see what comes up best under selected conditions. The ambition is to include ammo effectiveness parameters after that. Results, if any, shall be shared here. Right now I'm struggling with a silly "division by zero" error...

It strikes me that "harmonisation" (-zation?) is a subject that can do with some more thoughts. It is usually understood as meaning trajectories from multiple guns converging at a set point in space. We have already learnt that harmonisation to two or more points has been done. To this I shall add harmonisation to infinity, and negative harmonisation, meaning diverging trajectories. Furthermore, it seems that harmonisation is usually considered in a single surface, parallel to the trajectories of guns that are basically located in one plane (meaning surface here, not aircraft). It seems that this x-distance notion of harmonisation leaves out an y-spread notion that is important too. This already gives one preliminary conclusion: more guns enable better harmonisation in the y-axis than fewer guns can do. Shall explain with drawings later.

Rob