USAAF US Navy Guns since 1930.

[CharlesBronson]

Whith this topic I want to assemble detailed information about the barrel armament of the US air forces including the Navy and U.S Army from 1930 up to the operations in Irak in 2003.

Evidently to cover the entire subject with a decent amount of information per every weapon is not an easy task, fortunately to me the argentine DNA have a fairly big and well know component of excessive self confidence.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Development of the Browning Cal .30.

First part.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Wao...sticky with just one post, THAT is confidence.

Development of the Browning cal .30 part II.

 

[CharlesBronson]

2 pictures of the Caliber .30 MG, one in in a Stearman biplane and the other in the rear cockpit of the North America AT-6 texan.


Browning Cal .30 characteristics:

Action: short recoil sliding breech.

Refrigeration; air

Feed: disintegrable metalic belt.

Rate of fire: 950 to 1000 rpm. 700 to 800rpm in synchronizated mountings.

Muzzle velocity: 850 mps ( 2820 fps)

- M1918 model

- M1924 model, note the slimmer barrel jacket and case/link collectors.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Browning Caliber 50.

The masterpiece of John Moses Browning, one of the best all around use aircraft guns of WW2.

Part 1.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Browning cal .50 continues

By the way, the Armored aeroplane mentioned by Chinn in the early post are the "J" series, made by Junkers, AEG and Albatross.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Browning cal .50 part III

Caliber: .50 Browning machine Gun ( 12,7 x 99mm)

Action: Short recoil, sliding breech, air cooled.

Feed: disintegrable link metalic belt or linkless belt feeder.

Rate of fire: 720 to 770 rpm, 400 to 480 in synchronizated mountings.

- Twin .50 in the infamous Sperry ball turret.

- Nose emplacement in B-17, note the empy linkless belt guide.

- Disassembled.

- 2 guns in North American P-51A Mustang, the guns layed on a side.

- 3 guns inside the left gunbay of North American P-51D, the guns are in upright position.

 

[Micdrow]

Many thanks Charles for your hard work!!!!

 

[CharlesBronson]

Thanks, the hard work just began.

Ammunition for Browning cal .50 machineguns.

Muzzle velocity of the 12,7x99mm varied between 840 to 890 mps. The M2 AP could penetrate 19 mm of rolled homogeneous armor at 150 meters in a 90º incidence, the M8 penetrated 22mm of the same material at 300 meters.

The M2 puff on impact had also the same efect of the B-patrone used by the germans complementing the tracers, In fact the tracer ammunition almost desapeared from the belt of USAAF Fighter aircraft deployed in Europe since april 1944 . The Navy fighters and USAAF bombers continue to use it up to the end war .

 

[CharlesBronson]

Improved variants of the M2 cal .50.

Various efforts to speed up the gun resulted in the T36 development by High Standard, which raised the RoF by about 100 rpm and was adopted in late 1944 as the M2A1. Only 8,000 were made before it was replaced by the faster-firing M3 (which was developed by Frigidaire as the M25E3). Only 2,400 M3 guns had been procured by the end of WW2.

The M3.

 

[drgondog]

Wao...sticky with just one post, THAT is confidence.

Development of the Browning cal .30 part II.

In Chinn's remarks about the 30 being the primary air weapon, he is correct in general but all the B-17s at that time (B-17D's) and few B-17C's not yet converted had converted from 30 to 50's with only the flexible nose mount 30 cal remaining.

CB - Good work. Almost as good as some other specific postings on bionic flotation devices.

At Bell, we toyed with Col Chinn's 30mm derivative of the Mk 108 on the marine AH-1J cobra but it's cyclic rate was almost a macth for the natural frequency of the helicopter airframe... that's a 'bad thingy' for crews wishing to match a landing with a take off

 

[CharlesBronson]

Yup, the Navy fighters of the time use dalmost exclusively .50 MGs, the Army Air Corps P-40, P-39 and others had a combination of light and heavy Brownings however.

CB - Good work. Almost as good as some other specific postings on bionic flotation devices.

Some are plastic flotation devices too, thank you

At Bell, we toyed with Col Chinn's 30mm derivative of the Mk 108 on the marine AH-1J cobra but it's cyclic rate was almost a macth for the natural frequency of the helicopter airframe... that's a 'bad thingy' for crews wishing to match a landing with a take off

Interesting, what was the name or model of it ?

M3 in F-86 Sabre.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Hispano 20 mm cannon.

The Hispano Suiza HS 404 was a development of Mark Birgkit, swiss engineer of the French-Spanish-Swiss firm in 1936.

Both the UK and USA were very interested and purchased Birgkit design modifing it for several fitting and purposes.

The caliber was 20x110mm, action type was combined short-recoil/gas, with a tilting breech.
Rate of fire originally was 600 rpm later increased in British models.
It was installed in P-38, P-39, P-400 and several types of Navy aircraft.

 

[drgondog]

Some are plastic flotation devices too, thank you

Ahh but the more diminutive streamlined versions are more to my taste (literally) than the massive devices that would support a tank




Interesting, what was the name or model of it ?

It was a factory retained, USMC funded AH-1J. We also tested blast blankets on the ammo bay doors to withstand Zuni 5" launch blast. Didn't work too well.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Interesting, so you are a retired engineer ? 8)

Hispano 20mm part II.

 

[red admiral]

Great topic as always. Are you going chronologically or by calibre because there are the many 0.60" machine gun prototypes.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Thanks, I will post that experimental guns when I get done with all standar weapons of ww2.

Hispano 20 mm Part III

 

[CharlesBronson]

Part IV

- Performances

-Size comparative between 12,7 Browning, 20mm Hispano and 23mm russian cartrigdes.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Video: hispano 20mm test against plexiglas and armor plate.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8s9mvYWm4M

 

[Glider]

I know its a bit of a cheek but this smells like a cover up. The USA knew from about 1942 what the problem was with the 20mm produced in the USA. All they had to do to get it working was to adapt the American production to cater for the changes introduced by the UK. Changes that we were almost begging them to introduce as the guns as built in the USA were useless
The statement complaining that any changes would result in retooling seems to point to an emphasis on production at all costs, even if you are producing something that doesn't work well. At a guess the manufacturers were more worried about the cost of retooling and loss of production than making something that worked.
The comment about the poor machining tolerances goes against the British observations as to the quality of the finish of the American weapons. They may not have worked, but they were well made.
I admit to not understanding the comment 'The ammunition should be manufactured to fit the chamber of the gun it which it will be fired and not to fit the British or American 20mm. What were they supposed to make.
The estimate of a 15-25 year development period for an optimum aircraft weapon is shall we say, pessimistic, in view of the development period of the Aden and Defta 30mm guns.