Ah, I see!

Thanks Mark, now I get your drift 😀

I altered my post afterwards to add that I have niggling doubts about my workings.. I may be missing a ‘vector’ element to how the forces act against each other?

Not an expert, so this really is just opinion now – but I believe that aircraft are frequently struck by lightning, and without a ground, the ‘bolt’ just passes on through (or ’round’ where there is a metal skin, ie Faraday Cage). However, the heat of the arc might get you if you are caught in it. Wasn’t the rear fuse of an Anson MkI entirely wood? So no Faraday cage protection there as such – Just a bloody great lightning rod sticking out in the form of a trailing wire, and a winch – connected by conductive wires to a wireless.. so it seems feasible. Very. But I doubt it would have ‘discharged itself in the cabin’.. it is contact with ground, surely, that discharges a bolt?

Perhaps the Anson wouldn’t have needed to be particularly near the ground for this to happen – see pic

[ATTACH=CONFIG]223382[/ATTACH]

On the other hand, being connected with the ground, IIRC, makes matters much worse? Mark?

..for example 2kg of wire of 2mm diameter @ 288 km/hr will drop 2m / 6ft. Dropping to 208 km/hr doubles this to 12ft.

All this is based on a made-up diameter and estimated material weight (steel). Anyone have any figures for these?

Also, I have seen pictures of lead weights on the end of trailing wires. Add a 5lb weight and in this example at 150mph drop is 6.5 metres – what, 20ft?

If you take drag out of the equasion what you are left with is a vertical cable.. Imagine something hanging inside the aircraft, no matter how fast it is travelling.

10-100m is approx 30-300 feet.. so in the critical range for whole or even half wavelengths., and big changes in length when changing frequencies.

I agree that some kind of vector diagram might help resolve this. What is the width of the wire?

That makes perfect sense. The bit about the amount let out depending on frequency – as well as standing to one side!

200ft seems standard for the equipment – this 1938 AP refers to a ‘standard’ trailing aerial – and records 200ft as the length on one example of the T1083 in use on a Swordfish.

http://www.k7jrl.com/pub/manuals/britmil/t1083/T1083.pdf

IFF wasn’t linked to voice radios, they were separate radio fits. The MkII IFF used the two wires from fuse to horizontal tail, and was introduced in Spits in the UK from Sept 1940 onwards. It was phased out by 1943. The MkII came in several sub-variants, each one capable of responding to more and more radar wavelengths as they were introduced in theatre. The problem was permanently solved with the introduction of the ‘universal’ MkIII, which used a small aerial mast under a wing rather than the wires.

Exactly what IFF fit was carried would depend upon what interrogating radar the aircraft was expected to respond to at the time, in that theatre.

The aerial wire from mast to tail was fitted while the aircraft carried the TR9D radio. This was an HF radio, and the wavelength required as long an antenna as possible. When the radio was changed to VHF (the APs say TR1133, but in reality these were hand-built and rare, the ‘productionised’ TR1143 being the more common variant), the required antenna (1/4 wavelength) needed only to be 75cm or less. The aerial mast was used, with the actual antenna running up the inside. The wire was not needed, though the bracket to hold the wire often remained. Again, it depends what radios were used in theatre at the time. I suspect VHF.

Hutshus Cluudull.. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Is this what the USA went to war with them Polish Commies in Flanders (or whatever) for?