1. #11
    Actually armour glass was meant to protect against rifle calibre shells, but protected relatively small area.
    There is still a chance to get killed behind it.
    I remember the memories of a soviet ace (with three tarans !!!). He engaged a "Junkers" (not specifying the model) and a bullet hit him in his right eye, exiting from the back of his skull!.
    In fact he did not lose consciuos immideately, and managed somehow to maneuver and ram the enemy! The next thing he remembers was him falling down, outside of his plane, he opened his chute and landed alive...He returned to active duty after some time and scored more kills, with one eye.
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  2. #12
    joeap's Avatar Senior Member
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    Tipo_Man
    You got a link or something? Incredible story! Especially going on to fight with one eye...and no depth perception.
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  3. #13
    Originally posted by joeap:
    Tipo_Man
    You got a link or something? Incredible story! Especially going on to fight with one eye...and no depth perception.
    The name of the pilot is Boris Kovzan.
    (Борис Ковзан) in Russian. Unfortunately couldn't find the whole story in english.

    In fact if I'm not wrong, I think that the British first scoring ace in WWI was almost blind with one of his eyes.

    http://www.wwiaviation.com/aces/ace_Edward_Mannock.html
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  4. #14
    Originally posted by Tipo_Man:
    Actually armour glass was meant to protect against rifle calibre shells, but protected relatively small area.
    There is still a chance to get killed behind it.
    I remember the memories of a soviet ace (with three tarans !!!). He engaged a "Junkers" (not specifying the model) and a bullet hit him in his right eye, exiting from the back of his skull!.
    In fact he did not lose consciuos immideately, and managed somehow to maneuver and ram the enemy! The next thing he remembers was him falling down, outside of his plane, he opened his chute and landed alive...He returned to active duty after some time and scored more kills, with one eye.
    holy sh.. . Thinking of it is enough to give me the creeps...
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  5. #15
    JtD's Avatar Senior Member
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    I'd say it depends on the angle, but it is unlikely that 1 hit from 200m away gets through. Same as getting pilot killed in the FW by a 0.50 through the windscreen.

    I sometimes have my doubts about armored windscreens.
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  6. #16
    Saburo Sakai lost an eye to an Avenger gunner. He flew several hours back to base, paralyzed on his left side, drifting in and out of conciousness, with a rag stuffed in the hole in his head. At one point he let a fuel tank run dry which killed the engine. The zero used an acceleration pump linked to the throttle in place of a primer so he had to reach over with his right hand to pump the throttle and then quickly perform the rest of the startup procedure, all with one hand.

    He also returned to duty when they ran very short on pilots.

    --Outlaw.
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