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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 0175.PDF
JANUARY 24, 1935- FLIGHT. 89 (Left) The mounting of one of the canons in the P.Z.L. P.24. (Right) A gun position at the rear of the hang ing "car" of the French LeO.208 bomber. point of attachment of the lift struts and wings, and eject their empty cartridge cases through slots in the bottoms of the fairings. This placing of canons in wings obviously has much to recommend it, for a moteur canon of the Hispano-Suiza type can accommodate only one gun. The Oerlikon canon, the type which was responsible for the revival of the canon craze on the Continent (one must not forget that Hispano moteur canons were employed during the war), is of 20 mm. calibre, and its shells have a muzzle velocity of 2,723 ft. /sec. Fitted with a full maga zine holding sixty rounds, the gun weighs 161 lb. Little information is available regarding the French bicanon or pluricanon machines at present being developed, but it is known that certain of the prototype aircraft, in cluding Loire and Dewoitine monoplanes built for the last competition for single-seater fighters held by the French Government, have been modified to take two canons in their wings. The Morane 227 C.i fighter monoplane is fitted with an Hispano Xcrs moteur canon and a pair of Chatelleraut machine guns mounted outboard. This seems to be quite a promising effort at solving the problem of armament distribution, and deserves close watching. An Aerial Field-gun It is intended that the practical employment of these multicanon machines should be similar to that of normal single-seater fighters, the view generally taken being that a canon is only a machine gun of large bore. Some of the new multiplace de combat machines may be armed with 20 mm. or 25 mm. canons if desired, and there is a story in circulation that a very large French bomber, believed to be the Bordelaise A.B.21, has been equipped with a "75" In this country we have a squadron of flying boats mounting 35 mm. Vickers-Armstrong quick-firing guns, the flying boat being one aircraft obviously suited for such equipment. Little is heard of increases in armament of fighters in America. For some years past, of course, the 0.50 Brown ing has been a standard weapon, and has been mounted in company with the 0.30 gun. A very great deal of de velopment work on electrically controlled outboard guns has been done over there, but for fighters the synchronised type is still holding its own. For the heavily armed "attack" machines, however, like the Curtiss "Shrike," which has its four front guns mounted in the "trousers" of its undercarriage, the outboard weapon is popular. Vickers 0.50 guns have also been mounted on certain Italian types, as, for example, the Fiat C.R.30. The Breda 27, shown at Paris, mounts a pair of^synchronised 7.7 mm Breda Safat guns for which 800 rounds of ammu nition are provided. This machine, incidentally, was one of the exhibits fitted with a mirror enabling its pilot to see what is "on his tail." An excellent example of a Continental "multi-gun" This diagram shows the disposition of armament in the Amiot 143M. Members of the crew occupying alternative positions are indicated by dotted lines.
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