Continuing the theme of aircraft weapons, it is quite predictable to move on to aircraft guns of the Second World War. I'll make a reservation right away that this article is generally devoted to 20-mm cannons, and one single 23-mm cannon got here because it is nevertheless closer in characteristics to 20-mm colleagues than to those that will be discussed later.
And one more point, which I would like to draw attention to, based on previous articles. Some readers ask, why didn't we talk about some developments? It's simple: in our ratings there are actually fighters, not developed types of weapons. And the best, in our opinion.
And we are very grateful to you for your votes in favor of this or that weapon. Although, as it seems to us, we have some excessive patriotism (in relation to the same ShKAS). Although everything was natural in large-caliber machine guns, the Berezin was really a perfect weapon.
So, air cannons.
1. Oerlikon FF. Switzerland
If there is somewhere a weapon aviation god, then in our case his first word would be the word "Oerlikon". Not quite the correct transcription, well, God bless him, right? The main thing in our history is that it was from the developments of Dr. Becker that numerous aviation and anti-aircraft automatic weapons of Oerlikon Contraves AG were born. The name already contained the essence: from the Latin contra aves - "against the birds." In fact, they are primarily anti-aircraft, and secondly, aviation.
Many people were interested in the Erlikon's air cannons. Simply because no one really released them in the early 30s. And all this advanced design led to a well-known position - during the Second World War, almost the whole world shot at each other precisely from "Erlikons".
Cannons from "Erlikon" were produced not only by those who could not get into the air cannons, but even those who could. The famous German MG-FF is not in vain similar in name to the Oerlikon FF …
Originally "Oerlikons" were turrets in the bulk. It was assumed that a fighter, anticipating a victory over a bomber, could be somewhat saddened, having received a 7.7 mm cucumber 20 mm in the forehead instead of a handful of peas. And this was the essence and understanding of the situation.
Therefore, immediately after the turret versions of the AF and AL guns went to the market, Oerlikon, having acquired from Hispano-Suiza a patent for installing guns in the collapse of the cylinders of a water-cooled engine, began developing a new generation of weapons.
This series of Erlikon cannons entered the market in 1935. She received the trade designation FF (from the German Flügel Fest - "wing installation"). These cannons were already regarded as fixed offensive weapons. Although, if desired, they could be installed with a turret, simply without installing a pneumatic reloading mechanism.
But the most interesting "feature" of "Erlikon" was a huge assortment of peripherals, which was sold with each gun. Various mounts for the engine, turrets, wing installations, pneumatic and hydraulic loading mechanisms, wheeled and anti-aircraft machines in infantry, tank and naval versions, as well as various magazines. For each of the guns, a set of drum magazines with a capacity of 30, 45, 60, 75 and 100 rounds was offered, and for old customers of the company the possibility of using old 15-round magazine magazines from the 20s was retained.
In general, indeed, "any whim for the client's money." But in fact - a superbly unified weapon system for almost all occasions. And all this from the rather modest Becker cannon, invented back in 1918 …
The only drawback of these guns was that the operation on the basis of a free shutter did not make it possible to synchronize the operation of the guns with the engine. But, as we know, this did not greatly sadden those who used them. MG-FF at the root of the wing of the FW-190 with 180 rounds of ammunition - it was quite weighty for itself.
A significant number of countries have become clients of Erlikon. Guns based on the FF family were used by Germany, Japan, Italy, Romania, Poland, Great Britain, Canada.
By the beginning of World War II, the development of aircraft versions of the Erlikons had ceased. In terms of the main parameters of the Oerlikon air cannon, the FF began to give way to the French, Soviet and German cannons. But mainly, the impossibility of synchronizing the cannons with the engines played a role.
The first was not easy at all times …
2. MG-151. Germany
The first prototype of this gun appeared in 1935, but it was not until 1940 that the MG 151 was put into production. They dug for so long not because there were some difficulties, but because the German command could not decide on priorities. But when it dawned on the Luftwaffe that something had to be done with the rapidly aging MG-FF, everything went as it should for the Germans, that is, quickly.
This is how the MG-151/20 turned out, in two guises: a large-caliber 15-mm machine gun and a 20-mm cannon.
Some "experts" regard the 15-mm and 20-mm versions as a kind of bicaliber weapon, seriously saying that "with a slight movement of the hand" the 15-mm machine gun was transformed into a 20-mm cannon by simply replacing the barrel.
Of course, this is not the case, but let's forgive non-specialists. The machine gun did not turn into a cannon, since for this it would have to not only change the barrel, but also the chamber chamber, the cartridge receiver, the buffer body and the rear buffer itself, whispered.
But the unification was really very high, we must pay tribute to the German engineers. Indeed, at the assembly stage, it was possible to assemble both a machine gun and a cannon in one workshop.
The cartridge, by the way, remained the same low-power 20x82, the projectile of which was unified with the MG-FF projectile. The sleeve was different.
Unification did not work for the good. It turned out that the 15mm machine gun had more luxurious ballistics than the 20mm cannon. The 15 mm MG-151 was perhaps one of the best representatives in its class, but the MG-151/20 turned out to be quite mediocre precisely due to the weak cartridge.
A high-explosive projectile came to the rescue, which was very powerful, perhaps the most powerful in the class and with good ballistics. The armor-piercing one was completely weak in all respects.
However, this did not bother the Germans at all, since there was only one gun in the world, which was actually stronger than the MG-151/20. The Soviet ShVAK, which had better combat characteristics, with better ballistics and rate of fire. The only place where the 151st had the advantage, I repeat, was the shells.
From the end of 1941, the 20 mm MG-151/20 became the main armament of the Luftwaffe aircraft. In fact, in the German fighter aviation there was no plane on which this weapon would not stand, at least in some of the submodifications. On Bf-109 fighters, it was installed in engine and wing versions. On the FW-190, a pair of MG 151/20 was installed in a synchronous design at the wing root. The strength of the 151 was that the synchronous variants did not lose much in rate of fire. The rate of fire decreased from 700-750 to 550-680 rds / min.
And in bomber and transport aviation, the turret versions of the MG 151/20 cannon were on the planes, which were equipped with two handles with a trigger and a frame sight placed on the bracket.
Such guns were installed in the shooting points of the FW-200 and He-177 bombers, in the nose turret of the Ju-188 and were supposed to be used not so much for defense against fighters as for firing at ground and surface targets. In HDL.151 turrets of several modifications, the MG-151/20 gun was on the Do-24, BV-138 and BV-222 flying boats and some versions of the FW-200 and He-177 bombers in the upper mount.
In general, we can say that ALL German aircraft, which were armed with air cannons, were somehow associated with the MG-151/20.
Aviation cannons MG-151 were produced in Germany from 1940 until the very end of the war, at seven enterprises. The total number of released guns of all modifications is estimated at 40-50 thousand pieces. This amount was enough not only for the needs of the Luftwaffe. The Italians received about 2 thousand MG-151/20 cannons, which they armed with Macchi C.205, Fiat G.55 and Reggiane Re.2005 fighters. Romanians received several hundred - they were armed with IAR 81C fighters. In September 1942, 800 MG-151/20 cannons and 400 thousand cartridges for them were delivered to Japan. Ki-61-Iс fighters were armed.
In general, the MG-151/20 can be called the main Axis air cannon.
3. Hispano-Suiza HS.404. France
The whole essence of the French company Hispano-Suiza can be expressed in one name: Mark Birkigt. In French life - Mark Birkier. It was he who created the 404 and all those that followed it.
Strictly speaking, there was nothing fundamentally new in the design of Mark Birkier's cannon. Only well-assembled old, but how …
The shutter is a principle patented by the American gunsmith Karl Svebilius back in 1919. The trigger is by Italian designer Alfredo Scotti.
Birkier combined the developments of Swiebilius and Scotti, received the original development, while maintaining a certain constructive continuity with the Oerlikon cannons.
And after the 404th model, Birkier had far-reaching plans to create even more powerful guns. For example, the 25-mm HS.410 cannon for the promising cartridges 25x135, 5 Mle1937B and 25x159, 5 Mle1935-1937A and the 30-mm HS.411 for the modified Hotchkiss cartridge 25x163 mm, which was increased in dimensions to 30x170 mm.
In 1937, France nationalized all private enterprises working with military orders, including the Hispano-Suiza plant. Birkier took offense and moved production to Geneva.
All developments of Birkier, which existed in the form of prototypes, were transferred to the state-owned company Chatellerault, where it was supposed to complete the development and introduce new weapons into the series. But since the designers and engineers partially left for Switzerland with Birkier, the case in France dragged on. So much so that Hispano-Suiza went bankrupt in 1938.
Birkier took most of the documentation for his designs to Switzerland, hoping to establish the production of guns there. A wide advertising campaign was launched in the hope of attracting the interest of foreign buyers.
It turned out to be a very amusing situation when the same developments were offered for sale by a French state-owned company and a Swiss private firm. Moreover, production facilities and equipment were located in France, and documentation and "brains" in Switzerland.
But there was also a third party, Great Britain. There, at the specially built BRAMCo plant, they also began to produce HS.404. We must pay tribute to the British, they managed to bring the HS.404 cannon to the level of the highest world standards. The Americans, who started a year later, were less fortunate, they brought the gun to condition only by the end of the Second World War. Well, it was relatively successful.
Already in the course of the outbreak of the war at the state arsenal "Chatellerault" was developed a mechanism for the tape feed of the gun. However, before the armistice and occupation, this mechanism was not implemented, and the British were engaged in fine-tuning it, eventually receiving a new modification of the Hispano MkII cannon. Also, the French did not have time to bring to the series and drum magazines of increased capacity for 90 and 150 rounds.
Given the very large range of aircraft used by the French Air Force during the war, it makes no sense to list all types of aircraft where Hispano guns were used. All the newest French fighters were armed with the HS.404 motor-gun, and the Bloch MB.151 fighter even carried two cannons of this type installed in the wings.
The HS.404 cannon adapted for turrets formed the basis of the defenses of the newest bombers Amiot 351/354, Liore et Olivier LeO 451 and Farman NC.223.
4. Hispano Mk. II. United Kingdom
Yes, strange, but the main cannon of the RAF was a French cannon, the same "Hispano-Suiza Birkigt type 404". The cannon successfully fought in many armies, except for its own, it remained in service for a long time after the war. But the British version of the gun cannot be ignored separately.
In general, when all the ministries of defense rushed for guns, the choice, although it was small, was there. Madsen, Oerlikon, Hispano-Suiza …
The French cannon was good. The HS.404 was superior to the Oerlikon in terms of the main combat parameters: rate of fire, initial speed, but it was more difficult technically. The British preferred the French design.
The English-made cannon received the official designation "Hispano-Suiza Type 404", or "Hispano Mk. I", the version produced in France was called "Hispano-Suiza Birkigt Mod.404" or HS.404.
The first British aircraft to be armed with the HS.404 cannon was the Westland "Whirlwind" twin-engined interceptor, purposefully designed to accommodate a 4-gun nose battery.
The reliability of the cannons of the first series of production was disheartening, but the British made every effort to make the cannon finally work like a human being. And this pushed them to an unprecedented step: to cooperate with Birkigt, the author of the development. But this is a separate detective story in the style of James Bond and we will pay attention to it in the very near future.
And a miracle happened: the cannon started working. Yes, at the cost of reducing the rate of fire from 750 rds / min for the basic version to 600-650 rds / min. But reliability has grown to level 1 failure per 1500 shots.
One of the significant shortcomings of the HS.404 gun was its ammunition supply system. It was an extremely bulky 60-shot drum mechanism, which, moreover, weighed 25.4 kg. Plus, this thing severely limited the installation of the cannon in the wings and was the subject of torment until the moment when the tape method of feeding the cannon was invented.
With the ribbon, the gun became known as "Hispano Mk. II". The gun was not only liked, but registered on all aircraft, from Hurricane and Spitfire to Beaufighter and Tempest. The release has ceased to keep up with the needs. An attempt was even made to supply guns under Lend-Lease from the United States, but the quality of the American version did not stand up to criticism.
Summing up the history of the use of the Hispano cannon in the British aviation of the war years, it should be said that it was a cult weapon. The production of Hispano guns continued in various modifications for many years after the end of the war, until it was completely outdated. There is no exact data on the number of guns produced, but according to a rough estimate, during the war years, about 200 thousand guns were produced in Great Britain alone, which makes it the most massive aircraft cannon of all time.
5. ShVAK. the USSR
SHVAK … Perhaps there are few models in the world of weapons, around which there were so many legends and fictions.
Let's start with the fact that even today it is impossible to really understand and determine when exactly the work on this gun began. According to a number of documents, the development of the gun was carried out in parallel with the 12, 7-mm machine gun of the same name, and all this was in the framework of the creation of a kind of bicaliber system since the spring of 1932, that is, almost in parallel with the 7, 62-mm ShKAS machine gun.
According to other sources, the start of work on the 20-mm version of the ShVAK dates back to the beginning of 1934, when Shpitalny decided to rework the 12.7-mm machine gun for a more powerful cartridge.
Considering what was happening in the 30-40s of the last century among Soviet designers, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Perhaps Shpitalny really had the idea of a unified weapon for different calibers. Otherwise, why would it have been necessary to fence such a heavy, complex and expensive machine gun under 12, 7-mm caliber?
However, who said that difficulties frightened someone in the Soviet Union? On the contrary, they even stimulated.
And Shpitalny did. Having realized in the ShVAK cannon its operating time in the form of a 10-position drum mechanism for the phased extraction of the cartridge from the tape. This achieved the same crazy rate of fire of the ShKAS, and the ShVAK cannot be called slow.
The first Soviet aircraft, where the ShVAK cannon was installed, was the Polikarpov I-16 fighter. In July 1936, two wing-type ShVAK cannons were installed on an experimental version of the fighter - TsKB-12P (cannon). Already in the next year, 1937, this modification under the designation type 12 began to be mass-produced at factory # 21.
And at the very end of 1936, the ShVAK was placed in the collapse of the M-100A engine cylinders in the I-17 fighter.
The synchronous version appeared fairly later, since the case was, unlike the European design bureaus, completely new. But they coped with this, having installed two synchronous ShVAKs at once on the I-153P in 1940.
With the beginning of the war, ShVAK began to produce and massively install on all Soviet fighters.
The bombers were more difficult. The only serial aircraft, where turrets with ShVAK were regularly installed, was the Pe-8 heavy bomber. But this bomber cannot be called numerous. Rather, piece production.
And when the I-16 was discontinued, and VYa guns began to be installed on the Il-2, there was no need for the wing version of the ShVAK. True, there was a small series in 1943 to replace the machine guns on the Hurricanes.
Speaking about the role of ShVAK in the war, it is worth mentioning the number. Taking into account the pre-war release, the ShVAK cannon was released in more than 100 thousand copies. In fact, this is one of the most massive aircraft cannons in its class and in terms of quantity is second only to the Hispano cannon, which was mentioned above.
How to evaluate ShVAK so that everything is fair? There were many drawbacks. And frankly a weak projectile, and unimportant ballistics, and the complexity of design and maintenance. But the first two shortcomings were more than offset by the rate of fire.
Nevertheless, the ShVAK Shpitalny and Vladimirov cannon was the main weapon of the Red Army Air Force in the fight against the Luftwaffe. And even the weak ShVAK shells were enough to destroy all the aircraft at the disposal of the Luftwaffe. The case when the number and rate of fire were decided.
Of course, if the Germans had heavy and well-armed bombers like the American "fortresses", our pilots would have had a very difficult time. But leaving the subjunctive mood, let's say: in a duel with German cannons, ShVAK clearly emerged victorious.
6. But-5. Japan
The Japanese had their own way. However, as always, on the verge of understanding.
There were cannons in the Japanese Air Force before the war. No-1 and No-2. To say that they were unsatisfactory is to say nothing, they were created on the basis of Type 97 anti-tank rifles.
These were rather bulky systems, with a terribly low rate of fire, not exceeding 400 rds / min. And already in 1941, the Japanese command began to solve the problems of developing new aircraft cannons.
Moreover, in Japan in 1937 the licensed production of Swiss "Oerlikons" was established. But the Oerlikons remained naval anti-aircraft guns, while the army abandoned them on the pretext that they could not synchronize with the engine. But seriously, most likely the matter is in the eternal confrontation between the army and the navy, which harmed and brought the Japanese armed forces to the final defeat.
There were supplies of German guns from the Mauser, which were installed on Japanese fighters. But the "German women" could not be called successful guns, so the Japanese chose the third path.
The army relied on its genius Kijiro Nambu. Before the war, the general designer very successfully ripped up the American "Browning" of the 1921 model, so much so that the Americans themselves were amazed. But-103 showed a rate of fire 30% higher than the original, being in no way inferior in reliability.
In general, General Nambu did not bother, given that the time was really tight. He simply took and proportionally enlarged the bore and the cartridge feeding system. What's most interesting - it helped!
The No-5 cannon surpassed all modern imported models in terms of performance characteristics. And not only cannons, but also some large-caliber machine guns. At the beginning of 1942, only one aircraft gun in the world was not inferior to the No-5 in practical rate of fire. It was the Soviet ShVAK, but at the same time it was almost 10 kg heavier than it and much more technologically complex.
Until the very end of the war, American aircraft received "greetings" from their Japanese counterparts, fired from copied American machine guns and cannons.
7. VYa-23. the USSR
Here's the exception. A slightly different caliber, but we will not go past. Moreover, if the Japanese No-5 was weaker, it was not very strong.
When it became clear that the ShVAK was frankly weak, it was decided to develop a gun for a more powerful cartridge.
In general, in the pre-war world there was a tendency towards an increase in calibers, but how to say it, not very actively.
The Danes from Madsen converted their 20-mm machine gun to a 23-mm caliber. Hispano-Suiza developed 23-mm variants of the HS-406 and HS-407. Firms are famous and respected, which is probably why Soviet designers paid attention to the 23-mm caliber. There was even a small scandal about the alleged sale of technical documentation for the 23-mm HS-407 motor-cannon by Hispano-Suiza employees.
It is difficult to say whether this was true or not, documentary evidence could not be found. But these accusations against Birkier strangely coincide in time with the issuance of an assignment by the People's Commissariat of Armaments in the USSR to design a new 23-mm cannon in the summer of 1937.
And intelligence in the Soviet Union could do a lot …
In the same period, the development of a new 23 mm cannon cartridge was started. And there is an interesting nuance here. For some reason, all foreign companies preferred cartridges with moderate power. "Madsen" - 23x106, "Hispano" - 23x122, and the Tula craftsmen decided otherwise, creating a cartridge 23x152, which surpassed all imaginable analogues.
The reason for the creation of such ammunition is a little unclear. Unambiguously, the capacity was excessive, and unnecessarily excessive. In addition, the use of such a cartridge generated recoil that not every design could handle.
Perhaps it was planned to unify this cartridge in the future for use in anti-aircraft guns. But it turned out that the 23x152B cartridge turned out to be very successful, it was destined to have a long life in a variety of artillery weapons systems.
However, at first, the greatest problem was precisely the high recoil of the new guns. S. V. Ilyushin, who in every possible way tried to abandon the installation of a VYa on his BSh-2 attack aircraft, motivated his reluctance with a high recoil force.
Indeed, in March 1941, experiments were organized to measure the recoil values of competing guns. It turned out that the recoil force of the competitor's MP-6 cannon is 2800 - 2900 kgf, and that of the TKB-201 gun (in the future, just VYa) - 3600-3700 kgf.
True, it should be noted that the recoil of 3.5 tons from the VYa guns did not prevent her from going through the entire war on Il-2 attack aircraft. However, only this aircraft with an armored frame and a reinforced center section was able to carry these guns. But with what efficiency …
In this article, we will not consider the use of VYa-23 as an anti-tank weapon, but the fact that the Il-2 was a very effective attack aircraft will not occur to anyone to dispute.
Advantages: a powerful projectile with good ballistics, good rate of fire.
Disadvantages: recoil, which did not allow the use of the cannon except for the Il-2.
Summing up in some way everything written, we note that against the background of their foreign classmates, Soviet guns look quite themselves, despite the fact that the Soviet design school was very much inferior to everyone in its lifetime.
Nevertheless, we had our own (and very good) weapon.
We now propose to vote for the best sample.
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