Placing the Bell P39 Aircobra.

[Graham Boak]

Franek, the Pe 2.

A low-drag aircraft such as a fighter without airbrakes cannot spend enough time in a vertical dive to acquire a target and release a weapon from ideal conditions. That's why specialist dive-bombers have dive brakes, did anyone imagine they were there for decoration? You want to go vertical in a fighter? Sure, providing you have lots of altitude, and pull-up before exceeding limiting speeds. This does not take very long. You want to hit a target with a bomb from a vertical dive? Then you need time an altitude to move into that position, time and altitude to acquire the target, and time and altitude to position yourself to an ideal stable release condition. Then time and altitude to pull out. If dropped under unstable conditions or the wrong speeds, bombs will not go where they are aimed, they may even come up and hit the aircraft. Bombs are not purely passive objects to be dropped, they fly. Specialist dive bombers are accurate from a vertical dive (sometimes), fighters are not.

This isn't just bartalk, this is gravity. Uncle Isaac wins. Not just on a house percentage, but every time.