Being on the other end of this phenomenon, I was entitled the Cronic Snoozer at work. Oh, how Fossill suffered.
A number of years ago I was on a Delta ATL-EWR in a 767 with a ferocious tailwind. It was on an early spring night and I think we were at flight level 350. In any event, the pilot was so impressed with our push that he got on the intercom and I can still hear his words. "Ladies and gentlemen. We have a terrific tail wind this evening and we have just reached a ground speed of 760 miles per hour. I just had to say that!"
I was once on a British Airways 747 that experienced a hefty tailwind all the way from JFK to LHR. The entire trip was bumpy like riding on a cobblestone road. We arrived over London an hour early and had to hold for 40 minutes because they weren't ready for us at Heathrow! Our ground speed must have been close to 750 on a trip like that!
I was good friends and worked with the flight engineer of "Dauntless Dottie", a B-29 that lead the first raid on the Japanese mainland. They encountered the unknown headwinds, tailwinds, and wind shear on those first raids. He said that after locking in the bomb run they watched every bomb end up in Tokyo Bay. The first experience with the Jet Stream.
Differential ballistic winds cause big issues on any dumb bomb dropped from altitude. One of the reasons the Russians could not hit anything they aimed at in Syria, since they could not afford PGMs, except when doing OT&E. The B-52s in Desert Storm were missing by up to 1500' in Iraq when dropping from FL 450, and they were well south of the Jet Stream. F-16s had the same problem when dropping from 12,000-15,000' and above 57 mm range. Their "death dot" was a joke at that altitude.
Now, Terry, you must not have read the glowing and unassailed press about the Norden bomb sight. It could drop a bomb right in the center of a pickle barrel from 30,000 feet!
You are welcomed, Mr. Keith. I'm glad that I can lighten up your day. I should admit that I simply like to enjoy life and try to make things a bit more livable for others.
I feel that I should flesh this thing out some. Our group at the time was involved in many studies to enhance all of our products. Some studies were looking at new designs and we were busy as heck. Everyone had a name plate on his desk and sometimes a sign to identify the program on which he was working. The Sonic Cruiser was dying a predictable death at the time and I worked up a program identifier that I set up on my desk that said " Cronic Snoozer". Being the oldest guy in the group , the label went along with Fossil and stuck until I retired for the third time. I have the sign somewhere in a box. Looking back at those times, I doubt that many companies have a group like that one. The talent, experience, leadership, and vigorous application of it was something unique. Some of it is still there but most of those who were a part of it then are now in high level positions in the company and are still doing a good things.
Bob- The Norden was a wonder and it corrected for the wind at the altitude of the bomber. Unfortunately, the winds varied all the way to the ground. So you were often correcting for a 30 knot wind at altitude, when there was no wind at the surface. I believe the Norden could have hit that pickle barrel on a no wind day. Lots of those, but only in Neverland.
Terry, we're on the same page. I don't doubt that the Norden was a great piece of equipment but the B-29 bombardiers had sometimes three strata of winds going in different directions through which the bombs had to travel. No matter how good the sight or the bomb aimer was , hitting the target dead on was impossible. I believe that is why LeMay ordered that raids be made at low altitudes, I don't remember how low but it was VERY low comparatively. he got results, too.
The other problem was the almost continual cloud cover over Japan. Think LeMay had the B-29's down at about 5,000 feet for the firebombing.
Of course the firebombing raids did not require great accuracy. With the help of the wind they were pretty much a scorched earth campaign.
