Boe 111: Fill & Download for Free

Lightly armed? German bombers?What would make you think they are?The post-Poland versions of the Heinkel He 111, the mainstay German bomber of the early war, were armed with a total of seven 7.92 mm MG 15 machine guns for defensive purposes. That’s not lightly armed. The British Avro Lancaster, mainstay of the British strategic bomber force, had no more than eight .303 machine guns for its defensive armaments, and that was, mind you, a four-engined heavy bomber that even when stripped bare weighed more than a good two tons heavier than a Heinkel loaded with as much as you could possibly load it and expect it to be able to take off.Compare every German bomber to their British or Soviet equivalents and you’ll see whether they were ‘lightly armed’. Whether it be the Heinkel He 111, Junkers Ju 88 or Dornier Do 17, their defensive armaments were well within common norms of the time.I get why you are thinking they were ‘so lightly armed’. You’re comparing them to this thing:I can’t help but ask, what were you expecting? That’s not because German bombers were armed too light, that’s because that’s the goddamned Boeing B-17 you are comparing them to, the Flying Fortress. You’re comparing it to what? The Heinkel He 111?The maximum load of the B-17 weighs slightly less than as much as two empty He 111’s.You are comparing a German medium bomber, to a strategic bomber that could use said bomber as a bomb.If you really have to compare things to the Flying Fortress at least pick on someone its size:Heinkel He 177 might not have had the awe-inspiring power of thirteen Browning .50 calibers, but I assure you, four 13mm machine guns and two very, very dangerous 20mm cannons are not the kind of firepower you want to go against. And if you’re ever wondering why Germans didn’t turn their main heavy bomber project into a gun-clad citadel, it’s because they had a different way of doing things: it might not have been as well armed or as tough as the Flying Fortress but it could fly much faster, and drop an unimaginably frightening bomb load of a little over 15.000 kilograms.If it ever feels as if German bombers were awfully undergunned by the standards of the era, then check whether you’re comparing them to an appropriate aircraft.

You are comparing apples to orangesThe F-15C is a pure air superiority fighter. It’s sole purpose is A2A combat. It does not do air to ground.The F/A-18 is what the Navy and McDonnell-Douglas (now Boeing) developed from the YF-17. The F/A-18 is a multi-role fighter and can be compared to its USAF contemporary, the F-16. Both the F/A-18 and the F-16 can perform a variety of missions, including CAS.The F-15E is an air interdiction platform that is really a light to medium bomber, but for treaty compliance we can’t call it that. It replaced the F-111. The F-15E can certainly do CAS, but that isn’t is basic mission.

Because the law requires all contracts to be competitively bid and your company has to demonstrate they can perform the contract. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX and others have all bid on contracts. Keep in mind that NASA subsidizes SpaceX so the costs you see don’t really indicate the true cost. SpaceX also benefits from the experience of Boeing and Lockheed Martin in the space business. ULA (owned by LM and Boeing) builds rockets that propel all manner of commercial and military satellites into orbit. Since 2006 the company has lofted 111 such payloads into space without losing a single one to accident or mishap. That’s a striking feat, one that Bruno repeatedly cites. He doesn’t need to mention that his upstart rivals (SpaceX) have not come close to achieving this sort of record.Historically, ULA had provided monopoly service to the U.S. Air Force on its large satellite launches. But the Air Force had recently certified SpaceX to bid on its contracts -- and compete with ULA. SpaceX parlayed that certification into one GPS III contract win in May 2016, when a legislative snafu in Congress temporarily deprived ULA of access to the engines it needed to launch its rockets, handing the contract to SpaceX by default. But freshly restocked with new engines from Russia, ULA had no intention of allowing SpaceX to beat it in a real contest on a second GPS III contract.Both companies submitted their best bids to the Air Force -- and as we learned this week, SpaceX won.The Great Rocket RaceSpaceX Goes Head to Head With Boeing and Lockheed -- and Crushes the Competition -- The Motley Fool