Fokker Gatling gun 7,92mm

[CharlesBronson]

So weird that deserve its own topic, this design was proposed for fighters by the dutch designer late 1919-20. Its development began well into ww1 but never achieved service with any air force.

 

[Clay_Allison]

I have long wondered why Gatling guns were not re-examined as air weapons until Vietnam. the technology was well known and the benefits should be obvious (in tests, a mini-gun is 9 times as accurate as a machine gun with only 4 times the rate of fire because of the concentrated stream of fire). I always thought a 6 barrel .50 on a P-38 would be terrifying.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Fokker was truly a genious. Great info CB!

 

[CharlesBronson]

I have long wondered why Gatling guns were not re-examined as air weapons until Vietnam. the technology was well known and the benefits should be obvious (in tests, a mini-gun is 9 times as accurate as a machine gun with only 4 times the rate of fire because of the concentrated stream of fire). I always thought a 6 barrel .50 on a P-38 would be terrifying.

Agreed, actually the first time and electric motor was married with a Galting was in...1890s, and even in taht early date 5000rpm were obtained. Even the british had some plans for Gatlings in the mid 1920s. the problem with this guns is that cannot be sincronizated and they are 300% 400% heavier than a normal rifle caliber self operated machinegun.

Fokker was truly a genious. Great info CB!

Well it was, but no always succesful, for example in late 1917 he invited the Chief of german Army air service to an demonstration of a new Fokker Monoplane with rotary 160 hp engine and 3 ( yes 3) sinchronizated LMG 08. When Fokker pull the trigger its entire mechanism failed, the propeller was destroyed by the 8mm rounds. The engine stopped.

Kind of embarrasing, in the end there were no 3 MG armed single seat fighters in german service in WW1.

 

[tyrodtom]

Fokker often gets personal credit for designs actually done by designers he employed.

Fokker did develope a 3 gun eindecker EIV, in 1915, for Immelmann. Immelmann flew it on a few patrols, but I can't find if he ever scored with the 3 gun monoplane. It was juust too much weight for the airframe.

 

[timshatz]

It was juust too much weight for the airframe.

Yeah, that was not a very powerful Engine (80HP?). Add that to the Eindecker being not the most easy aircraft to fly and all that weight was a problem.

 

[davebender]

Interrupter gear - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The interrupter gear is a prime example. The History Channel and popular history books suggest it was invented by Fokker. So it must be true.

Swiss engineer Franz Schneider, working for Luftverkehrs Gesellschaft, designed and patented a synchronizer in 1913. French aircraft designer Raymond Saulnier built and patented a practical gun synchronizer in April 1914.

In 1916 LVG and Schneider sued Fokker for patent infringement — the battle continued until 1933 and though the courts repeatedly found in Schneider's favour, Fokker refused to acknowledge the rulings, all the way to the time of the Third Reich in 1933.

 

[johnbr]

Me I have thought 3 of them firing down in the back of a Arado 234 and a pair of 55mm firing forward.I would make room in the fuselage by putting fuel in the wings.

 

[davebender]

I agree.

However small arms do not appear to have been an American priority during WWII. We built the atomic bomb. Yet we couldn't build a reliable 20mm aircraft cannon or a reliable modern light machinegun. Consequently our aircraft remained mostly armed with .50cal MGs and our infantry fought with WWI era machineguns right up to the Korean War. American research development priorities would need to drastically change if you want a .50cal mini gun.

 

[tyrodtom]

Probably as American designers saw it in the Browning .50 cal they already had a developed, dependable, very adaptable, weapon that they could produce in mass quatities. They even contiued developement after WW2, got it rate of fire to 1200rpm.

A .50 cal gatling would have to be a very bulky item, can you imagine the gondolas you'd have hanging under the wings of most fighters, it'd make the 20mm gondolas some Me109s had seem graceful.
How practical could developing a new weapon system that could only be used in one fighter, (P-38) be? Retraining armorers, logistics, would not be easy.

Why does that icon come up, I can't edit it out .