[Chock]

At a range of ten yards, there would probably not be enough angle deviation to cause a complete miss, which is of course another reason to get right on someone's ass, and half the reasoning behind a machine gun is to give you a good chance of a hit out of a lot of shots in the general area. Even if you simply shot a tire out, there'd be a good chance the thing would crash on landing back at base even if it eluded you. Of course you'd never know if that had happened and wouldn't get a victory claim, but it would be a contribution to your side's war effort all the same. So to some extent you would want your gunfire to spray around I imagine, since many shots would do nothing more than pop an entry and exit hole in the canvas, and you'd probably be hoping the odd round would zing off a stringer or strut and take the guy's head off or, ping a flying wire into his face or some such.

Keep in mind too, that most of the slipstream from an aeroplane is not actually directly behind it, but quite a way below the thing. That actually comes as a surprise the first time you experience it, as you expect it to be more or less directly behind the thing. So in a close in turning fight, where you are leading the target, you'd be fairly well above the slipstream if you got close in.

A lot would depend on the aircraft you'd be shooting at too; with the best will in the world, a BE2 is not going to be able to dodge around much, since it was in fact designed with stability in mind for aerial observation. On the other hand, half the time a Sopwith Camel wasn't even traveling in the direction it appeared to be pointing!

What amazes me more than anything when you read of people being shot at in aeroplanes, is the amount of times they say that the instruments got smashed in front of them. I always wonder how the hell a bullet could do that without having passed through the pilot, unless it was a ricochet off the airframe. Whatever the reasoning, that must have been truly terrifying to see.

Al