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How did Plane machine guns shoot through propellers?
Machine guns were mounted on the top of the fuselage, directly in front of the pilot, but that position placed the gun directly behind the propeller. The gun had to be designed to fire through the propeller without hitting it, which was not an easy task.
How do nose guns work?
Essentially a mechanical device working off the crank shaft (or cam shaft) of the engine that prevent the gun from firing when the propeller is in front of the barrel. The “Interrupter Gear” a timing device that allowed the machine gunn to shoot bullets between the propeller blades. A very clever piece of engineering.
How did the interrupter gear effect ww1?
Sync gear, also known as an interrupter or gun synchronizer, was developed during World War I to ensure that an armament attached to a single-engine aircraft could fire through the spinning arc of a propeller without damaging the propeller blades.
Why are airplane propellers twisted?
Propeller Design There is a twist along the length of a propeller blade because the blade speed is much higher at the tip than it is at the root. The twist is necessary to maintain a more or less constant angle of attack along the length of the blade.
How does prop produce thrust?
Propellers convert engine horsepower into thrust by accelerating air and creating a low-pressure differential in front of the propeller. Since air naturally moves from high to low-pressure, when your prop is spinning, you’re being pulled forward.
How did machine guns stop propellers from hitting the front?
Machine guns were a logical complement to aircraft, but there was one problem: how to stop the gun from hitting the big propeller in the front. Machine guns were mounted on the top of the fuselage, directly in front of the pilot, but that position placed the gun directly behind the propeller.
Where are machine guns mounted on a plane?
Machine guns were mounted on the top of the fuselage, directly in front of the pilot, but that position placed the gun directly behind the propeller. The gun had to be designed to fire through the propeller without hitting it, which was not an easy task.
Why don’t fighter pilots use the forward machine gun more often?
Early fighter pilots often had to be careful about how much they fired their forward machine gun because firing it would slowly eat away at their own propeller. Fortunately for fighter pilots, by WWII a “synchronization gear” or “interrupter” had been developed and was standard equipment on fighters flown by both the allied and axis powers.
How did they fix the propeller in WW1?
The French made the first attempt to solve the problem – a propeller reinforced with steel. However, bullets could still harm the propellers, and those bouncing off might hit the pilot. In 1915, Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker provided the solution for the Germans.