Travel for Aircraft By joseph may on April 27, 2021 at 5:49 AM
Burning Japan: Air Force Bombing Strategy Change in the Pacific by Daniel T. Schwabe
Daniel Schwabe writes an excellent book on a significant turning point both in the war against Japan as well as the seismic shift in the nature of strategic bombing. He, of course, tells the story of General Curtis LeMay’s command decision to abandon the B-29 Superfortress flight profile of conventional high altitude bombing entirely. The accuracy of the Norden bombsight was a well exposed myth by that point in time and it could not compensate for the variety of wind shears bombs dropped from 30,000 feet experienced during their free falls. During the long range air offensive against Japan more B-29s were lost to engine failures (which resulted in distastrous wing destroying fires if the magnesium engine mounts ignited) not climbing to high altitudes would extend engine life and reduce in-flight engine fire potentia