The gunner would usually be dead weight at that point as well, along with his guns and ammo, unless a fighter decided to chase them into friendly AA fire.
Seem to recall the successful torpedo strike on the Bismark the observer / airgunner on at least one Swordfish was leaned out of the cockpit to advise the pilot when to drop the fish. Idea being the torpedo had to go into a trough, if it hit a crest it would go off course. Thats one use for your second man.
Except this only applies in torpedo planes with open cockpits. Unless you choose to have a torpedo plane with a bomb aimer in a glazed nose - who would presumably fire the torpedo as well. But thanks for the info! Little anecdotes like that are great to know. As torpedo planes have to fly straight and level towards their targets, generally big ships covered in AA guns, it makes sense to make the frontal area as small as possible - hence a single-seater being better. Similar theory to the German idea of having a dive-bomber with a prone pilot.
Thats' right! There was an interview wirh the pilot recently on either NGC or Discovery. It, however, seems like the observers actions were rather extraordinary as the pilot expressed shock when he noticed his observer practically hanging out of the plane! Regards! - B.
Where have you seen that, Tiornu? To the best of my knowledge the Reggiane RE.2001 Ariete (Ram) was a fighter and had a centrally mounted hook for the installation of a bomb so that the blane could double as a bomber of sorts. There were 2 main versions of the Ram; A CB fighter-bomber capable of up to a 1,410 lb bomb, but usually carried a 550 lb bomb, and a CN night fighter version with 20mm cannons replacing the 7.7mm wing guns. The first planes were delivered to the Reagia Aeronautica in June 1941. Production proceeded slowly with 40 built in 1941, just over 100 in 1942 and the rest in 1943. AFAIK the Savoia Marchetti S.79 Sparviero (or Damned Hunchback if you will) was the only torpedo bomber in the Regia Aeronautica's arsenal... Btw, this is very good site on the Regia Marina: http://www.regiamarina.net/ And this one is for the Regia Aeronautica: http://www.iwai.it/start.html Best regards! - B.
I don´t know about the Re 2001´s, but, when looking for more information about it, I found that 8 Re 2000´s were delivered to the Aviazione Ausiliaria per la Regia Marina. These were equipped with catapult pick-up points.
The first catapult-capable fighters delivered to the RM were not for carrier employment but for use aboard battleships or cruisers, rather like the CAM ships in RN use. Info on the Re 2001 is available in Green's War Planes of the Second World War, Weal's Combat Aircraft of World War Two, Taylor's Combat Aircraft of the World, and many others.