Ball Bearing attack effectiveness?

So a few times in the news, it’s been covered that the USAAF targeted ball bearing plants- and the effects on production was minor.

Is there any evidence that this was known at the time?

On one hand, it makes some sense that it was not effective, since ball bearings are pretty easy to produce and import- so getting them from other controlled territories or countries willing to take nazi money isn’t that hard.

On the other hand- could have that been deduced at the time?

1 Like

I don’t think :thinking: so. Also James Holland Big week claimed the Germans had to use lower quality flat bearing which let to accidents with eg German airplanes killing pilots. Sadly the Swedish and Swiss Governments were not the “clean people” they claimed to be after the war.

1 Like
1 Like

Aren’t bearings supposed to be round so that propeller can rotate for a longer time? Also,how many types of bearings are there?

flat bearings are round, too- a cylindrical shape vs. a round ball. If you’ve ever taken your axle apart, the bearings are the flat ones, oriented at an angle.

It is a lot easier to make small cylinders vs. round balls for the use in bearings- but that’s one aspect of engineering that I never got into during my career in the auto industry.

And I’ve never seen the inside of a 30-40’s era airplane engine- but car engines at the time used surface bearings that were fed with pressurized oil- no moving parts. And we still use them.

1 Like