- Thread starter
- #101
Burmese Bandit
Senior Airman
- 474
- Dec 5, 2008
Regarding the 50 mm, some further elaboration...Yes, I could have put the 37 mm Flak 43 (in a twin gun installation) with no less than 240 x 2 or 480 rounds a minute for this design - that twin gun would have weighed just slightly more than the monster MK 214 A. I thought for a long time about whether to go down that route.
It was attractive. I could have put 80 rounds per gun for a total of 160 rounds, with 10 seconds of fire at the full double-gun simultaneous fire or 20 seconds at single gun fire. This would certainly have killed anything on the ground except tanks, give at least a 50% probability of kill against tanks, and if there was ammo left give an excellent chance in head-on defence against enemy fighters...
But in the end I chose to put the MK 214 A as the primary weapon. For tank killing a weapon like this monster is the ONLY sure one that will guarantee kills against the top, side, or even sometimes the front armour of any tank the Russians fielded except for the late war Stalins.
However, the option to put two Flak 43s in an aircraft mounting is there. That's one good thing about having a big design...it allows you to have choices.
It was attractive. I could have put 80 rounds per gun for a total of 160 rounds, with 10 seconds of fire at the full double-gun simultaneous fire or 20 seconds at single gun fire. This would certainly have killed anything on the ground except tanks, give at least a 50% probability of kill against tanks, and if there was ammo left give an excellent chance in head-on defence against enemy fighters...
But in the end I chose to put the MK 214 A as the primary weapon. For tank killing a weapon like this monster is the ONLY sure one that will guarantee kills against the top, side, or even sometimes the front armour of any tank the Russians fielded except for the late war Stalins.
However, the option to put two Flak 43s in an aircraft mounting is there. That's one good thing about having a big design...it allows you to have choices.