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Vickers S Gun
The Vickers 40 mm Class S gun, also known simply as the Vickers S or S gun, was a 40 mm (1.57 in) airborne autocannon designed by Vickers-Armstrongs for use as aircraft armament. It was primarily used during World War II by British aircraft to attack ground targets. It was largely replaced by the RP-3 rocket from 1943 on. Development The Vickers 40 mm Class S gun was developed in the late 1930s as defensive weapon for bomber aircraft. The ammunition was based on the 40x158R cartridge case of the 40 mm naval QF 2-pounder anti-aircraft gun (known as the "pom-pom"). The gun itself was derived from the Coventry Ordnance Works 37 mm gun which used a long-recoil operation to fire a projectile. The gun was the planned armament of the Vickers Type 414 twin-engined fighter proposed to the Air Ministry in response to specification F6/39 for a two-seat fighter with 20mm cannon and the option of upgrading to 40mm guns. The Type 414 design placed the gun in a fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by the Supermarine Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in 1940, but the Hurricane inflicted 60% of the losses sustained by the ''Luftwaffe'' in the campaign, and fought in all the major theatres of the Second World War. The Hurricane originated from discussions between RAF officials and aircraft designer Sir Sydney Camm about a proposed monoplane derivative of the Hawker Fury biplane in the early 1930s. Despite an institutional preference for biplanes and lack of interest by the Air Ministry, Hawker refined its monoplane proposal, incorporating several innovations which became critical to wartime fighter aircraft, including retractable landing gear and the more powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The Air Ministry ordered Hawker's ''Interce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rolls-Royce 40 Mm Cannon
The Rolls-Royce 40 mm Cannon was a project first proposed in late 1938 to produce a cannon for mounting in aircraft which could cause sufficient damage to bring down a large bomber. It was envisaged as a suitable weapon for destroying tanks from the air. Experimental versions of the cannon were produced, including some with a magazine or belt feed for the ammunition. Examples were fitted to a Bristol Beaufighter and Hawker Hurricane for testing, although never used in action. Development of the aircraft cannon to iron out problems came to an end in 1943 when the Air Ministry lost interest in it and had started to favor the RP-3 rocket projectile as its preferred aircraft anti-tank weapon. The gun was designed by Italian engineer Spirito Mario Viale, Rolls Royce's chief armaments designer, at Littleover, Derby. The gun was tested on a small testing range at Sinfin near the Derby works without the usual precautions like red flags. Later trials were at an Army range at Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gun Pod
One of the first American attempts at a gun pod was the .50- calibre B-25_Mitchell.html" ;"title="machine gun conformal-mount "blister" pod on the B-25 Mitchell">machine gun conformal-mount "blister" pod on the B-25 Mitchell A gun pod is a detachable pod or pack containing machine guns, autocannons, revolver cannons, or rotary cannons and ancillaries, mounted externally on a vehicle such as a military aircraft which may or may not also have its own guns. History A Bf 109G-6 of the WW II ''Luftwaffe's'' MG 151/20 underwing gun pods In World War II the Third Reich's Luftwaffe made use of many different, and most often rigidly mounted, conformal and suspended-mount gun pod systems usually called ''Waffenbehälter'' (prefix of ''WB'', literally 'weapon container') or ''Waffenträger'' (prefix of ''WT'', literally 'weapon carrier'), and carrying anything from rifle caliber MG 81 machine guns, all the way up to the enormous ''Bordkanone'' anti-tank cannon based ordnance weapon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawker Hurricane Variants
The Hawker Hurricane was a British single-seat fighter aircraft designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft. Some models were built in Canada by Canadian Car and Foundry. British variants Hurricane Mk I Hurricane Mk I (Early production) The first Mark I production machines were ready fairly quickly, with deliveries starting in December 1937. These early aircraft featured fabric-covered wings, and a wooden, two bladed, fixed pitch propeller. Initially, the tailwheel was designed to be retractable. Early on it was discovered that the Hurricane needed a larger rudder area to improve the control characteristics during a spin. To this end, the lower part of the rudder was extended and a distinctive ventral "keel" was added to the rear fuselage. The tailwheel was fixed in place. Early Hurricanes lacked armour or self-sealing tanks. They used "ring and bead" gunsights, with the ring being mounted above the instrument panel and the bead mounted on a post above the engine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ground Attack
Close air support (CAS) is defined as aerial warfare actions—often air-to-ground actions such as strafes or airstrikes—by military aircraft against hostile targets in close proximity to friendly forces. A form of fire support, CAS requires detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement of all forces involved. CAS may be conducted using aerial bombs, glide bombs, missiles, rockets, autocannons, machine guns, and even directed-energy weapons such as lasers.''Close Air Support''. United States Department of Defense, 2014. The requirement for detailed integration because of proximity, fires or movement is the determining factor. CAS may need to be conducted during shaping operations with special forces if the mission requires detailed integration with the fire and movement of those forces. A closely related subset of air interdiction, battlefield air interdiction, denotes interdiction against units with near-term effects on friendly units, but which does not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armour-piercing
Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate armour protection, most often including naval armour, body armour, and vehicle armour. The first, major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many warships and cause damage to their lightly armoured interiors. From the 1920s onwards, armour-piercing weapons were required for anti-tank warfare. AP rounds smaller than 20 mm are intended for lightly armoured targets such as body armour, bulletproof glass, and lightly armoured vehicles. As tank armour improved during World War II, anti-vehicle rounds began to use a smaller but dense penetrating body within a larger shell, firing at a very-high muzzle velocity. Modern penetrators are long rods of dense material like tungsten or depleted uranium (DU) that further improve the terminal ballistics. Penetration In the context of weaponry, ''penetration'' is the ability of a weapon or projectile to pierce into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
M4 Autocannon
The 37 mm Automatic Gun, M4, known as the T9 during development, was a 37 mm (1.46 in) recoil-operated autocannon designed by John Browning, Browning Arms Company and entered service in 1942. The M4 and its variants would primarily be manufactured by Colt's Manufacturing Company and Oldsmobile (under-contract by Colt) and is therefore sometimes referred to as the "Colt M4" or "Oldsmobile M4." It was primarily mounted in the Bell P-39 Airacobra and Bell P-63 Kingcobra, P-63 Kingcobra, with the United States Navy, U.S. Navy also using it on many PT boats. Design Designed primarily as an anti-aircraft weapon, the gun had a muzzle velocity of and a cyclic rate of 150 rounds per minute. It was normally loaded with high-explosive shells, but could also be loaded with the M80 armor-piercing shell, which could penetrate 1 inch (25 mm) of Vehicle armour, armor plate at . It was magazine-fed and could be fired manually or by remote control through a solenoid mounted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panzer III
The ''Panzerkampfwagen III (Pz.Kpfw. III)'', commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Nazi Germany, Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was List of Sd.Kfz. designations, Sd.Kfz. 141. It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and serve alongside and support the similar Panzer IV, which was originally designed for infantry support. Initially, the Panzer III had the same 3.7 cm gun as the infantry used in an anti-tank role, but later models were given the 5 cm KwK 38 gun. This was the largest gun that could be fitted within the physical limitations of the turret ring, but it turned out to be ineffective against Soviet T-34 and Kliment Voroshilov tank, KV-1 tanks. The Panzer IV, which had a larger turret ring, was redesigned to mount the long-barrelled 7.5 cm KwK 40 gun and became the main German tank instead. Produced from 1942 onwards, the last version of the Panzer III ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desert Air Force
The Desert Air Force (DAF), also known chronologically as Air Headquarters Western Desert, Air Headquarters Libya, the Western Desert Air Force, and the First Tactical Air Force (1TAF), was an Allies of World War II, Allied tactical air force created from No. 204 Group RAF under RAF Middle East Command in North Africa in 1941 to provide close air support to the British Eighth Army (United Kingdom), Eighth Army against Axis powers, Axis forces. Throughout the World War II, Second World War, the DAF was made up of Squadron (aviation), squadrons from the Royal Air Force (RAF), the South African Air Force (SAAF), the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and other Allied air forces. In October 1941, the Western Desert Air Forces had 16 squadrons of aircraft (nine fighter, six medium bomber and one tactical reconnaissance) and fielded approximately 1,000 combat aircraft by late 1941.Dear & Foot (2005), p. 992 By the time of the Second Battle o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol Aeroplane Company
The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable aircraft produced by the company include the 'Boxkite', the Bristol Fighter, the Bulldog, the Blenheim, the Beaufighter, and the Britannia, and much of the preliminary work which led to Concorde was carried out by the company. In 1956 its major operations were split into Bristol Aircraft and Bristol Aero Engines. In 1959, Bristol Aircraft merged with several major British aircraft companies to form the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and Bristol Aero Engines merged with Armstrong Siddeley to form Bristol Siddeley. BAC went on to become a founding component of the nationalised British Aerospace, now BAE Systems. Bristol Siddeley was purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1966, who continued to develop and market Bristol-designed engines. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II, used primarily in the European Theater of Operations, United States Army, European Theater of Operations. It is the List of most-produced aircraft, third-most produced bomber in history, behind the American four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the German multirole, twin-engined Junkers Ju 88. The B-17 was also employed in transport, anti-submarine warfare, and search and rescue roles. In a USAAC competition, Boeing, Boeing's prototype Model 299/XB-17 outperformed two other entries but crashed, losing the initial 200-bomber contract to the Douglas B-18 Bolo. Still, the Air Corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation, which were introduced into service in 1938. The B-17 evolved through numerous Boeing B-17 Flyin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2 Cm Flak 30, Flak 38 And Flakvierling 38
The Flak 30 (''Flugzeugabwehrkanone 30'') and improved Flak 38 were 20 mm anti-aircraft guns used by various German forces throughout World War II. It was not only the primary German light anti-aircraft gun but by far the most numerously produced German artillery piece throughout the war. It was produced in a variety of models, notably the Flakvierling 38 which combined four Flak 38 autocannons onto a single carriage. Development 2 cm C/30, 2 cm Flak 30 The Germans fielded the unrelated early 2 cm Flak 28 just after World War I, but the Treaty of Versailles outlawed these weapons and they were sold to Switzerland. The original Flak 30 design was developed from the Solothurn ST-5 as a project for the Kriegsmarine, which produced the 2 cm C/30. The gun fired the "Long Solothurn", a 20 × 138 mm belted cartridge that had been developed for the ST-5 and was one of the more powerful 20 mm rounds. The C/30, featuring a barrel length of 65 Cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
