Were 20mm Hispanos used on P-38's Reliable?

[IceFire]

I'm not sure. I've not read much about the Hispanos in the P-38. The biggest problem with the cannon was that the initial French design was meant to be hub mounted in the nose of the aircraft carrying the cannon.

As this was impractical for the Merlin and Sabre engines the British never installed the cannon in the way it was meant to be used. Mounting cannons on the wings means that the mechanism is subject to more extreme forces and the flexing and bending of the wing. The early problems were attributable to that and to dirt and dust getting into the mechanism. There may be more issues than that... but that's the simple breakdown.

So the British and the Americans worked to fix those problems on the basic design independently.

My guess is that the P-38 and P-39 installation in the nose of the aircraft countered the difficulties with installing in the wings. Installing it in wing mounted installations for the Hispano only happened in the F4U-1C.

[WTE_Galway]

All you ever wanted to know about the WWII gun debate right here ....


http://users.skynet.be/Emmanuel.Gust...n/fgun-in.html

More here ...

http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/CannonMGs.htm


Note that unreliability in wing mounts was not the only issue. The following factors are also relevant:

- everything else in the US armed forces from HMG in rifleman squads through jeeps and tanks to light AAA mounts on boats used 0.50 cal. From a logistics point of view 0.50 cal was easier to supply.

- even if 20mm was "better" ... if 0.50 cal was doing the job it was uneconomic just to change weapons at random mid war

- multiple 0.50 cal in an aircraft could use a variety of gun harmonization some of which favored less accurate marksman. See the link and diagram below ...


http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Air...nBoresighting/

[NukeItFromOrbit]

Tony Williams there really knows his stuff. I do give the .50 caliber M2 series more credit than he does though. It worked for what we needed it to do.

Wasn't there a F6F-5 variant that had two 20mm Hispanos and four .50 cals? I think that would be a rather ideal armament for most situations.

A bit off-topic but did any P-38 variants with the 37mm cannon see combat? Considering the tally I've gotten in IL2 with the 37mm cannon on the P-39, I'd be interested to learn what pilots and engineers thought of this weapon.

[TinyTim]

Originally Posted by NukeItFromOrbit

Wasn't there a F6F-5 variant that had two 20mm Hispanos and four .50 cals? I think that would be a rather ideal armament for most situations.

Nightfighter versions sported this fearsome firepower. 250 rpg for cannons is pretty awesome too.