I built a custom test mission to check how bombs interact with aircraft in mid-air.
The target aircraft was a B-17 , and the bombs were dropped from very short distance under controlled conditions. Both aircraft guns were disabled so the test focused only on bomb-to-aircraft interaction.
The bombs do physically collide with aircraft , but they do not detonate on contact in mid-air .
Observed behavior:
60 kg bombs usually bounce off the B-17.
They may still cause limited local damage, such as damaging a propeller , but they do not usually cause major structural failure.
800 kg bombs can cause severe structural damage by impact alone.
- Depending on the impact point, an 800 kg bomb can break a wing or even the fuselage.
When multiple bombs are dropped, for example from a B-29, repeated physical hits can damage parts such as the tail or wing tips.
So the behavior appears to be:
Physical collision: yes.
Mid-air contact detonation: no.
In practice, the bombs behave more like heavy falling objects than normal explosive weapons when they directly strike another aircraft.
Short video summary:
60 kg bombs bounce.
800 kg bombs break wings and fuselages.
None of them explode on contact.