Since when were we discussing Vickers guns?
The Ho-103 and Ho-5 are both Browning designs and I thought this discussion was about how poorly the Ho-103 synchronized and how pilots had it replaced with the Type 89 which was the Vickers.
we were discussing gun placement and the evolution of Japanese fighter armament. Unlike the Americans who put a one or two .50s in the fuselage and additional .30s in the wings the Japanese almost never put their 7.7 guns in the wings. I am not sure if poor rate of fire was the only reason that some Ki 43s had one of their 12.7s replaced by a 7.7mm. The rate of fire of the 7.7 wasn't all that great either. Some people have suggested it was supply problems, either guns or ammo or both.
I believe I have a pretty good idea of how a synchronizer works as per this post which I will reproduce below for ease of reading.
FW-190 - How Good Was It, Really?
https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/fw-190-how-good-was-it-really.47877/page-5#post-1377498
Thank you.
WW I engines were rarely geared so even a 1500rpm engine had a prop rotating well in excess of the rates of fire of contemporary machine guns (usually about 600rpm)
The Germans on the MG 131 used electric priming and also used it on the wing root MG 151/20 guns of the FW 190. Me 109s and indeed all non-synchronized MG 151/20s got percussion primed ammo. This helped keep the rate of fire of the German synchronized guns closer to the free gun rate of fire (approaching only a 10% reduction).
Browning machine guns (and clones) are easy to synchronize. This is due to the basic mechanism. Some guns are impossible to synchronize.
The Basic Browning fired closed bolt. Round is already in the chamber and synchronizer only has to release the firing pin. Please note the British modified their Brownings to fire open bolt due to change to cordite propellent. Synchronizer has to release the bolt from the rearward position and it travels forward chambering the round and then firing. Aside from the Gloster Gladiator I don't think the British ever synchronized their Brownings ?
This does not mean the Brownings kept a high rate of fire when synchronized. The US .50 dropped from a nominal 600rpm pre war to around 450rpm when synchronized. I haven't seen a good figures for what happened when the US raised the rate of fire on the .50 from 600rpm to 800 rpm. But then the only US
fighters that continued after 1941 with synchronized guns were the P-39 and P-63. At least production versions. depends on how you count the A-36
I never claimed that Ki 43's 2 x 12.7 mm Ho-103 even with explosive shells was heavy armament.
I just claimed that it was better than the 2 x 7.7 mm Type 97 which is all the A6M2 would have after the 60 rounds of 20 mm were gone.
At a cyclic rate of 520 rounds per minute, the 60 rounds was good for slightly less than 7 seconds of firing time!
- Ivan.
The Zero had, for all practical purposes, the same armament as a Bf 109E, I would also note than any French fighters with 20mm guns used 60 round drums and the early Spitfire VBs used 60 round drums. Granted the Zero was a bit later in timing. However from the link Tomo posted it seems that very few Ki 43s had twin 12.7mm guns, at least in the part of the war where the Japanese were on the offensive. The majority of Ki 43s were built after Jan 1943 and even if all the later ones had twin 12.7s it is too late.
I would note also that for those 7 seconds the Zero has 3-4 times the fire power of a twin 12.7mm Ki 43 and about 6 times the firepower of a split armament Ki 43.
The Zero has much less need of repeated firing passes to score a kill on average.