HE ammo........

[Knarley-Bob]

 USAAF planes ever going to get it?

[Avimimus]

The 20mm and 37mm cannon equipped U.S. aircraft have HE ammo.

[Knarley-Bob]

Yes, I see that, I am mistaken about that.

 

Trying to learn something here, when watching old gun camera footage, what are the flashes from?

[ P 47 footage]

KB

Edited November 26, 2024 by Knarley-Bob
Clarification of post.

[nesher666]

2 hours ago, Knarley-Bob said:

Yes, I see that, I am mistaken about that.

 

Trying to learn something here, when watching old gun camera footage, what are the flashes from?

[ P 47 footage]

KB

What you saw was most probably armor-piercing incendiary (API) ammo used, since Browning .50 caliber machine guns didn't use high-explosive (HE) rounds.

[Avimimus]

Incendiary charges are relatively small (i.e. not proper bursting charges) and are mainly used to increase the likelihood of creating fires.

 

There are actually multiple ways they function - one of the developer interviews on Korea: Il-2 goes into some detail around the ways they are modelling three different types of incendiary round differently in the new simulator they are developing. It is quite complex.

 

In my opinion, the lack of API/API-T rounds for the .50 cal Browning isn't as big a limitation as the way gun convergence is handled. U.S. aircraft with wing mounted guns often had quite complex patterns of gun-convergence, but the sim currently has it so that all guns converge on a single point - which means that they are extremely effective at only one range (and less effective at other ranges)... in reality they should be moderately effective at several ranges due to the way the rounds converged.

[Knarley-Bob]

You are correct, the various guns on the wings did not all converge at the same spot. 

 

KB

[69th_Panp]

P47 guns convergence

[354thFG_Leifr]

It would be an ideal parting gift from 1C to provide USAAF with the box pattern, since API will never be a possibility.