[svandamme]

I can't draw it properly enough

but if you hold your right hand flat and your left hand banked,

now move them both forward, in such a way your left hand makes contact at the base of your right thumb at a 45 degree angle(in forward trajectory)


now look at the field of view from both finger tips, as a pilot would look, forward.. and up
Neither pilot could see eachother... and the B17 just pops up from below from the P63's perspective. It just a massive blind spot..

The only way the B17 could have seen it, is if left side pilot stuck his head against the windshield to look back
The only way the P63 could see the B17, is if he was not banked
or flew much slower so the B17 would popup at a greater distance.


Freak accident, It takes a perfect combination of speeds and angles for both of them to be blind like this.

The faster P63 imho did something odd.. flying banked but not pulling up means he's banked with direction from where everybody is coming, is completely blindspotted by his own fuselage..

Either he should have been level..
or he should have been pulling away from that blind spot, only safe way to maintain SA : to be faster and pull away from the blind spot

exact same happens in traffic on the highway when merging from the on ramp
excessive speed is good, you pick your entry point in the forward visual , ahead
Not enough speed, and you sit in eachothers blind spot, which only resolves if you look abaft.... which is a lot harder.