Anti-aircraft warfare

[gpbutler]

Does anyone know the greatest height for the shooting down of an aircraft by Antiaircraft gunfire?

[Clanad]

It depends a great deal on the weaponry, but usually from about 13,000 feet above mean sea level (MSL) to perhaps 20,000 feet MSL.  The "flak" type bursting shells of WWII had a lower average effective altitude (By the way, "flak", so common in WW!! useage comes from the German Fliegerabwehrkanone, or aircraft-defense gun or the bursting shell, either one...

[kempie]

Near the end of WWII the 120mm "stratosphere gun" was introduced which could fire to a height of either 48,000 ft or 60,000 ft (depending on which websites you believe).

I can't find anything on the interweb to say that it hit any aircraft though.

[Peter Pedant]

The Brits developed a cute proximity fuse

based on a gold leaf capacitor.....when one large object nears another, the capacitance goes down and sothe leaf tended to close and the shell went off....

just thought you ,ight be interested.