quote:

3-5. By late in 1943, the Japanese had successfully developed a magnetic airborne detector (MAD) and, commencing in March 1944, this equipment was put into operational use by both the Army and Navy for anti-submarine patrol.3 Range of detection was reported to have been about 120 meters under average conditions and about 250 meters was claimed under ideal conditions. Since expert pilots flew magnetic search planes only thirty to forty feet above the surface, the apparatus was therefore presumably capable of detecting a submarine at well over 300 feet submergence. Aircraft equipped with MAD were employed principally to search ahead of convoys or to exploit a submarine contact made by other means. ALthough it was planned to use such aircraft to sweep all heavily travelled convoy routes, lack of both aircraft and MAD equipment prevented this. The instrument was considered sufficiently reliable to warrant calling in surface craft whenever an initial contact had been established. The types of planes normally used for anti-submarine work, and equipped with MAD and/or radar when possible, were NELL, JAKE, KATE, JILL, DAVE, BETTY, ZEKE and EMILY.4 By the end of the war, only about one-third of the shore based anti-submarine planes had MAD, about one-third had radar, and only a very few were equipped with both. Anti-submarine planes were very seldom fitted with guns, which accounts for the low incidence of strafing attacks against U.S. submarines.

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ORIGINAL: ChezDaJez

That looks like a standard Hickory. Note the lack of a MAD boom or bomb racks.

MAD has always been a very short range sensor that is primarily used today as an attack sensor to confirm the target's position just prior to weapon release. I would highly doubt that WWII MAD systems had an effective detection range greater than about 200 feet. That is why the aircraft has to fly so low. Even today, the range is all that great and MAD runs are still conducted at low altitude.

In shallow water, MAD is often useless due to the number of false alarms caused from shipwrecks or rock/mineral deposits. Plus the aircraft must fly straight and level or remain in a constant rate turn to keep the MAD head stabilized. Any maneuvering can introduce a false reading.

One other thing to consider is that any time a major component of the aircraft is changed, such as an engine, the MAD equipment must be recalibrated. In the P-3 community, we called these recalibration flight "MAD comps" for MAD compensation. This was not the type of flight you want to find yourself on if you were prone to motion sickness. Lots of wing rocking, diving, climbing, yawing... they were fun!!! I used to like to stand in the galley of the P-3 while they did the compensation checks. You could actually get a feeling of weightlessness for a few seconds.

Chez

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ORIGINAL: RevRick

quote:

ORIGINAL: ChezDaJez

That looks like a standard Hickory. Note the lack of a MAD boom or bomb racks.

MAD has always been a very short range sensor that is primarily used today as an attack sensor to confirm the target's position just prior to weapon release. I would highly doubt that WWII MAD systems had an effective detection range greater than about 200 feet. That is why the aircraft has to fly so low. Even today, the range is all that great and MAD runs are still conducted at low altitude.

In shallow water, MAD is often useless due to the number of false alarms caused from shipwrecks or rock/mineral deposits. Plus the aircraft must fly straight and level or remain in a constant rate turn to keep the MAD head stabilized. Any maneuvering can introduce a false reading.

One other thing to consider is that any time a major component of the aircraft is changed, such as an engine, the MAD equipment must be recalibrated. In the P-3 community, we called these recalibration flight "MAD comps" for MAD compensation. This was not the type of flight you want to find yourself on if you were prone to motion sickness. Lots of wing rocking, diving, climbing, yawing... they were fun!!! I used to like to stand in the galley of the P-3 while they did the compensation checks. You could actually get a feeling of weightlessness for a few seconds.

Chez

Wimp. We used to do that sitting moored to the quay in port, if the breeze was right. Try riding a tin can in the North Atlantic chasing the bubbleheads around whilst you guys rode around upstairs giving us false leads. [:D]

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ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

That does sound like fun :) Until somebody barfs . . .

One night I got to looking on wiki about minesweepers and was surprised to hear that the most advanced modern minesweepers have hulls made out of glass-reinforced plastic!?

How many of the minesweeper ships in this game would have had wooden hulls?