The Best Single Air-to-Air Weapon of the War?

[cheddar cheese]

Best single air-to-air weapon; what do you think?

Me, I say the .50 cal

[the lancaster kicks ass]

bit vague aint it??

shraik Musk (however you spell it)

[mosquitoman]

20mm Hispano cannon for me

[cheddar cheese]

You mean schrage musik lanc? That wasnt one gun, it was a collection of guns firing upwards...I mean one gun...

[the lancaster kicks ass]

1) it could well be only one gun...........
2) it is a gunnery system, to me, it counts.............

[CharlesBronson]

When he say " cal .50" I guess that he refer to 12,7x99mm mostly now as .50 BMG.

Good weapon indeed, in the dogfitgh, but a little weak against bombers.

I think the best all around weapon is the 20 mm cannon. I like the Hispano Mk-5 but the virus of germanophilia such common in the fannatics of WW2 aviation make my choice for the Mauser Mg-151/20.

Despite that there are weapons wich have more initial speed of the proyectile, nothing is as fast-firing and carry the large amount of high explosive in this caliber. I have only one criticism, with 40 kg,..it could be lighter.

[P51ace 16]

Look the 50MM cannon is the best all around wepon even though one round would set a zero from a highly advanced hunk of machineary into a Flaming highly advanced hunk of machineary the cannon round gave you that assurance.

[evangilder]

50mm? In a fighter?

Originally Posted by CharlesBronson

When he say " cal .50" I guess that he refer to 12,7x99mm mostly now as .50 BMG.

Good weapon indeed, in the dogfitgh, but a little weak against bombers.

I think the best all around weapon is the 20 mm cannon. I like the Hispano Mk-5 but the virus of germanophilia such common in the fannatics of WW2 aviation make my choice for the Mauser Mg-151/20.

Despite that there are weapons wich have more initial speed of the proyectile, nothing is as fast-firing and carry the large amount of high explosive in this caliber. I have only one criticism, with 40 kg,..it could be lighter.

.50's did not carry explosives. There were three main types of ammo, the M1 Incendiary round, the M2 AP round, and the M8 API round. The M8 turned out to be the most effective. The .50 BMG had superior velocity to almost any WWII aircraft cannon (a few notable exceptions exist such as the MK103 and the Hispano) and superior ballistics performance because of its excellent shape. The Russian Brezin UBK 12.7mm was actually a better gun, but the ammo was inferior (no incendiary metal types).

For fighter vs. fighter combat there was little advantage to the 20 mm over the .50, especially against the more typical fighters like the Bf-109 or any Japanese fighter. Against the more robust American fighters (and the Tempest/Typhoon), 20mm may have been more useful.

In general I have two favorites for WWII, the MK. V Hispano and the B20 20mm cannons. The Hispano was powerful, but heavy and required aircraft structure to support it (it was not really a complete gun in this respect). It was really too big a gun for the Spitfire. The B20 was weaker but fired faster and was much lighter, two could be mounted for every Hispano carried.

The MG151/20 had lousy ballistics and relied entierly on the mine rounds to deliver kills. I really think both the Hispano V and the B20 were better guns. The MG151/20 mine rounds were really not large enough to kill their bomber targets effectively and the poor ballistics made them inferior to the Hispano against fighters. The B20's weight and high RoF made it nearly ideal against fighter targets, and because of the light weight more could be mounted making it effective against bombers too.

=S=

Lunatic

[cheddar cheese]

Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ass

1) it could well be only one gun...........
2) it is a gunnery system, to me, it counts.............

Yeah but it could be any gun...it doesnt count...if i were to create a thred entitled "best weapon setup" maybe so...

[the lancaster kicks ass]

schrage musik was a weapon, that was used in air to air combat, which is what this thread is about, it counts.................

[CharlesBronson]

Lunatic.

I have the chance of shot some .50 in the local gun range so I now that already.

If you want good armor piercing capabilities sure, there is better guns than Mauser, but the objetive of cannon is deliver explosive round and in this bussines the MG-151 was excellent. The blast effect seems to be more vicius for the plane estructure than put holes on It. Especially in the less robust or with wooden parts aircraft like some russian figthers.

Still it was feeded with some AP like :

APHE




API-Ph: the best of all AP round for the Mauser, his incendiary mixture was parts of withe and red Phosphore that have a very explosive effect when it can reach self sealing tanks.



API- E Filled with a substance called "Elektronthermite" that can burn even underwater, mostly used for twin engined bombers in the anti-shipping role.

[Soren]

The Germans also had some excellent 30mm guns !

[cheddar cheese]

Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ass

schrage musik was a weapon, that was used in air to air combat, which is what this thread is about, it counts.................

My thread, my rules...it doesnt count

[the lancaster kicks ass]

why not??