| abstract
| - A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory, which improves the accuracy of the drop. As the bomb's motion is primarily vertical, the complex parabolic trajectory becomes much straighter and easier to calculate - even by eye. The rapid vertical motion of the aircraft also aids in avoiding fire from anti-aircraft artillery, although diving to low altitude offsets this advantage as it brings the aircraft into range of smaller weapons. A dive bomber dives at a steep angle, normally between 45 and 70 degrees, and thus requires an abrupt pull-up after dropping its bombs. This puts great strains on both pilot and aircraft. It demands an aircraft of strong construction, with some means to slow its dive. This limited the class to light bomber designs with ordnance loads in the range of . This type of aircraft was most widely used before and during World War II; its use fell into decline during the war when its vulnerability to enemy fighters became apparent. The most famous examples are the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka which were widely used during the opening stages of the war, the Aichi D3A "Val" dive bomber which sank more Allied warships during World War II than any other Axis aircraft and the Douglas SBD Dauntless, whose most well known action occurred at the Battle of Midway. A second and simpler dive bomb technique is to bomb from a shallow dive angle, sometimes referred to as glide bombing. A shallow dive angle reduces the accuracy, but still allows line of sight to the target during the bomb run. The Junkers Ju 88 was widely employed in glide bombing and was equipped with special bombsights operated by the pilot for this task. The Heinkel He 177 is often mentioned as having its development upset by the demand that it be able to dive bomb, although this too was to be used for glide bombing. The phrase "glide bombing" should not be confused with the term glide bomb, where the bomb glides towards its target while the aircraft remains in level flight. Attachments for this type of bombing were fitted to the Norden bombsight, but in practice this proved unworkable.
- An air unit with a move of 4. If fights at 1 if enemy fighters are present and 5 otherwise.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)