Bf 109 gun pods

davebender said:

The 3cm Mk108 cannon entered service during the fall of 1943. Use of a hub mounted Mk108 cannon should have largely negated the need for wing mounted cannon on late war Me-109s.

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Hello Dave
MK 108 was fairly rare in late 109Gs (U4 mod) and had reliability problems, especially if fired under G-loads thanks to its heavy ammo. It became the standard motorkanone only in K-4

Juha

That would certainly be a problem for a fighter aircraft.

Erich Hartmann had more success with the Me-109G then anyone else. What was his preferred weapons package? How about Rall and Barkhorn?

Juha said:

If you mean F-S's I thought it was worth owning, one main complain was that there are not line drawnings on different versions and subtypes, but I also own Prien/Rodeike F, G and K book, which is good but a little dated and Valtonen's which both have many good line drawnings, so I didn't need one more book with them. I have also some other books on Bf 109 and on the a/c of the Finnish AF so I can cross-check the info. I'd recomend that you read the links I gave in my earlier message, there is also one more thread, the first one, on the discussions in TOCH on F-S's book on that site. Read those and draw your own conclusion. I used mostly F-S's, P's/R's and Valtonen's books and Raunio's Lentäjän Näkökulma II when I check something on Bf 109Gs.

Juha

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Thanks!

Hello
I remembered one point. Even LW officials seemed to have been a bit unsure on that Rüstsatz/Rüstzustand thing.
All 109Gs were wired for MG 20/151 gunpods. Now after the initial 16 factory new 109G-2s all the later G-2s delivered to Finland were repaired and overhauled specimens, at least many of them with 109 G-6 wings. Now in the Übernahme-Bescheinigung form for ex. MT-241 (WNr 14253) on the line Sonstige is written Rüstzustand: Ohne Gondelbewaffnung and on accompanying paper there is among other
Der Flugzeug wurde z.Zt. ohne Rüstsätze angeliefert
Rüstzustand: Ohne Gondelbewaffnung.

IIRC all Finnish AF got all its G-2s without gunpods but why these Rüstzustand statements? Why not simply state "Der Flugzeug wurde z.Zt. ohne Rüstsätze angeliefert". Why wasn't that enough to declare the fact that the plane was delivered without Rüstsatz VI?

Juha

Rüstzustand = equipped condition
Rüstsatz = equipment kit
In literal translation..

My guess Rüstzustand was probably general term in German aircraft industry, probably to make clear in contract handover how much $$$ you owed to the factory.
Yes, you have to pay extra for Gondolas. These were almost all private companies, remember!

Hello Tante-JU
thans for the answer, I know. The extra cost for Gondolas was fairly high, that's why Finns buy only was that 16 G-6s with the Gondolas, but IMHO the sentence "Der Flugzeug wurde z.Zt. ohne Rüstsätze angeliefert" already made the price question clear. But maybe only German throughness.

Juha