3 thoughts on “.50 caliber myth

  1. Haven’t read the article yet, because I don’t need that myth put to bed. Any sane person knew the falsity of that myth at its first hearing. Any one who knows anything about physics knows it is a falsehood. It takes many hits of .50 cal to fatally damage an aircraft, excepting killing the crew.

    .50 cal brought down a lot of small aircraft in WWII and one jet in VN (the only jet kill by gun,ever). But I promise it took way more than one hit each.

  2. As an engineer for Boeing, this kinds of idiotic statements are insulting, as if we’d design & build aircraft so utterly fragile that a half inch hole could bring one down.

    I have only one thing to say about the myth that a 50-cal can bring down an airliner:

    Aloha Airlines Flight 243

    If an airliner can land safely with that kind of damage, do you really think a 50-cal will do it? Unless the shooter gets a lucky shot and nails the pilots, it ain’t happening.

  3. I assume we’ve all seen the heavy bombers and the fighters shot to pieces during W.W. II, still able to reach home and land. Col. Cooper tells us of one Jap fighter, IIRC, that was found hit by a single .50 BMG round that took it down. It had a half inch hole through the vitals of its single engine.

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