The best thing about the Spitfire Mk XIV was that there were so few of them

[Clayton Magnet]

But there was a 20mm gun bay there already, use it with the second gun an a slim blister burried as much as possible into the wing, I assume they were looking for a quick fix.

They used pods so the aircraft could be "quickly" modified in the field, to prepare for different targets.
Intercepting heavy bombers today? slap the gun pods on.
Tangling with fighters? Take the pods off, and run with internal armament only.
Well, in theory anyway

 

[Shortround6]

It may have been don't disrupt the production lines!!!

Run off as many nearly identical airframes as you can,
Modify them later at modification centers or in areas just next to the production line/s while other aircraft are diverted for other uses.

Trying to convert at squadron level for day to day use is much more of a war gamer fantasy.

 

[Clayton Magnet]

One of the most diabolical of the underwing pods has to be the WB-81. Which was 3x MG 81Z machine guns packed together, and splayed out and down at specific angles to hose the ground with 10000 rounds per minute, per pod. Only carried by Ju 87's though, I believe.
Basically a human being lawn mower.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

One of the most diabolical of the underwing pods has to be the WB-81. Which was 3x MG 81Z machine guns packed together, and splayed out and down at specific angles to hose the ground with 10000 rounds per minute, per pod. Only carried by Ju 87's though, I believe.
Basically a human being lawn mower.

View attachment 682532

I'd never really paid any attention to that, but with your rpm figure I had to look. That seems pretty badass, but I'd imagine short bursts would have to be the rule of the day? Barrel-heating would have to set in pretty quickly, and I bet it eats the ammo carried like Dom DeLuise ate popcorn.

 

[PAT303]

They used pods so the aircraft could be "quickly" modified in the field, to prepare for different targets.
Intercepting heavy bombers today? slap the gun pods on.
Tangling with fighters? Take the pods off, and run with internal armament only.
Well, in theory anyway

View attachment 682531

Problem with that theory is they would require re-zeroing each time they were taken off and refitted, that's a lot of stuffing around.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Problem with that theory is they would require re-zeroing each time they were taken off and refitted, that's a lot of stuffing around.

At 10k rounds per minute, this is like recalibrating a firehose. It's more a point and shoot weapon, I'd think.

 

[GrauGeist]

I'd never really paid any attention to that, but with your rpm figure I had to look. That seems pretty badass, but I'd imagine short bursts would have to be the rule of the day? Barrel-heating would have to set in pretty quickly, and I bet it eats the ammo carried like Dom DeLuise ate popcorn.

Barrels overheating wouldn't be much of an issue. The MG81Z was a "twinned" 7.92mm MG81, which was mostly used for defensive positions on aircraft like the Ju88.

So the pod was fitted with three MG81Zs, which in essence, was six MG81s.

 

[Milosh]

Memory could be fading but wasn't there a Ju88 that had a bellyful of machine guns? 12 mgs comes to mind.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Barrels overheating wouldn't be much of an issue. The MG81Z was a "twinned" 7.92mm MG81, which was mostly used for defensive positions on aircraft like the Ju88.

So the pod was fitted with three MG81Zs, which in essence, was six MG81s.

Right, it's a twin-mount, each barrel spitting ~1400-1600 rpm, but unlike the ground-based MG-34 or -42 you obvs couldn't change barrels in flight, so no sustained bursts, no?

 

[GrauGeist]

Right, it's a twin-mount, each barrel spitting ~1400-1600 rpm, but unlike the ground-based MG-34 or -42 you obvs couldn't change barrels in flight, so no sustained bursts, no?

They most likely did short bursts like most Ground attack aircraft.
If I recall right, there was only 1,500 rounds available per pod (one 250 round ammo box per weapon), so even an extended burst wouldn't last long (RoF for the MG81 was roughly 1,500 rpm).

 

[PAT303]

At 10k rounds per minute, this is like recalibrating a firehose. It's more a point and shoot weapon, I'd think.

The 20mm pods would have to be calibrated to hit a bomber.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

They most likely did short bursts like most Ground attack aircraft.
If I recall right, there was only 1,500 rounds available per pod (one 250 round ammo box per weapon), so even an extended burst wouldn't last long (RoF for the MG81 was roughly 1,500 rpm).

More or less what I was thinking for ammo loadout, those pods don't look like that they can carry much shooting time. 10 seconds of shooting time (250 is 1/6 of 1500, so you shoot it off in 1/6 of a minute, which is ten seconds.) Best guess from me? Two passes.

Even if they could carry more ammo, you'd still have to go easy on trigger time for the barrel-warming issues anyway.

 

[GrauGeist]

I believe the Ju88 and Do217 carried up to six WB-81 pods, and some cases the pods were arranged so some fired forward and the rest fired backward, ensuring better coverage of their soft targets.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I believe the Ju88 and Do217 carried up to six WB-81 pods, and some cases the pods were arranged so some fired forward and the rest fired backward, ensuring better coverage of their soft targets.

Jeezly Crow.

 

[Jugman]

Putting four 20s and six 303s is pretty enough in my book. How the airframe looked, well, it wasn't pretty, but the business end is in stuff like Bismarck Sea battle, and Med as well as North Sea patrols. I think that speaks for itself.

As I wrote upthread, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I find that gun loadout combined with some rockets on racks to be pretty good-looking, blunt nose be damned.

I don't really find it ugly. I just find it a awkward looking, generic and boring. *Shrugs*. Now the B-25 A-20, A-26 on the other hand look threatening to me. (The P-39 does to but in an entirely different way)

 

[33k in the air]

One of the most diabolical of the underwing pods has to be the WB-81. Which was 3x MG 81Z machine guns packed together, and splayed out and down at specific angles to hose the ground with 10000 rounds per minute, per pod. Only carried by Ju 87's though, I believe.
Basically a human being lawn mower.

Kind of reminds me of the 8 x .50-cal MG gun pod developed for the P-82 Twin Mustang. When combined with the 6 x .50-cal MG armament in the center wing, it raised the total of forward-firing guns to 14.

The gun pod was never used operationally, however.

 

[GrauGeist]

I can't do pix at the moment, but y'all google "Tu-2Sh hedgehog" if you want to see a strafing terror...

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I don't really find it ugly. I just find it a awkward looking, generic and boring. *Shrugs*. Now the B-25 A-20, A-26 on the other hand look threatening to me. (The P-39 does to but in an entirely different way)

It's all good, we like what we like. I dig the B-25s too, they're pretty pugnacious too.

 

[Clayton Magnet]

Problem with that theory is they would require re-zeroing each time they were taken off and refitted, that's a lot of stuffing around.

That's a good point.
Unless the 20mm gun pods were precise enough with a "return-to-zero" mount, but that seems unlikely

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

The 20mm pods would have to be calibrated to hit a bomber.

I'm pretty sure Clayton Magnet specified that for hunting bombers, internal armament would be used. Reread the post you quoted.