for a start about la-5/la-7 and just important because planes of BoS...
personally i for a long time think over next interesting puzzle, or mystery, or just thing about number of ammunition for la-5/la-7...
it is considered what some first lag-5 (or
lagg-5, don't know, but in docs personally i saw all names) and maybe la-5 (from previous link from very interesting book - lagg-5 became called la-5 or "lavochkin-5" after приказ НКАП 683 in 8 sept'42) had 400-440 shells in total, further 340 and starting from la-5f with low fuselage all planes had 340 shells, but in book of Yakubovich i saw interesting drawing with ammo boxes of lag-5 with 500 shells in total (attached)...
in very interesting "техническое описание самолета ла-5 с мотором м-82, часть первая, общие данные и вооружение самолета", 1942 have number of shells for la-5, 340 in total, and very similar picture of ammo boxes, but without "250" (attached)...
attached some pics with ammo boxes of serial aircrafts, well, i think boxes were not changed...
ie, apparently - if boxes really were not changed - 170 shells for each shvak can be something like theoretical capacity of boxes, or weight limit (well, constant struggle for weight reduction, in end'42-early'43 especially), or just standard limit of ammunition for all planes (unnecessary shells ie pilot can be shot down faster than ammo end), or some technical details, for example, in this "td of la-5, 1942" (pages 12-13 and 18-19) written what "links of belts discharged in ammo boxes" ("звенья отводятся в эти же патронные коробки") ie it's teoretically can be reason of 340 shells, too, and similar thing have in "technical description of i-185-71" (
page 47), where "звенья верхней пушки (250 снарядов в патронной коробке) отводятся звеньеотводом в левую заднюю коробку (где ТОЛЬКО 140 снарядов, в то время как в правой - 170 снарядов)" ie links of upper gun discharged in ammo box of LEFT gun with only 140 shells in ammo box (for example, for right gun - 170), but i-185 it's not la-5, and another type of technical details it's for many types of planes of all countys all time we can see not full ammunition for guns (personally i can't say here any serious reason, why, only weight limit and real need in ammunition)...
well, it's all what personally i found, about ammo boxes, in all manuals/descriptions/books and personally i think - only at this moment - 340 shells it's weight limits and standard limit of ammunition for all planes ie real need in ammunition, so, apparently and teoretically, pilots could take more shells if need (for example, free hunt or attack of ground targets) or if wanted (for example,
this pilot says what flew with only 80 shells in total), or something like this and in this case, maybe, need to give in game new ammo loads (like "100", "340" and something like "470-480") or new mechanism of choice of loads...
or, if i'm wrong, all this just another curious post...
