Questions about twin machine guns on WWI aircraft.

Rob

Rob

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Questions:

Did the twin machine guns on so many WWI fighter aircraft fire together at the same time or was only one at a time normally used?
Is it true that these guns were prone to jamming and that the second gun was essentially a backup in case the other failed?
Mi6IHDG.jpg
 
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Both fired at the same time.

Some jamming did occur, pilots would regularly carry a hammer to bash the gun with, but the 2nd gun was not a backup
 
Maybe an example of a twin mounted on a WWI aircraft?? Had read about the singles - was a fair bit of commotion to work out an interrupter system to avoid shooting your own propellor off with one machine gun, so not sure how that was dealt with forward firing twins?? I do know from my Dad (RCAF WWII) that most all guns would let rip at the same time, so long as they could, but they were mounted in the wings of the fighters of the day. Also, Allies had multiple configurations of fighter armament during WWII - from 8 x 303's to 4 x 50's to 2 x 50's plus 2 x 20mm and so on. I am sure the firing controls varied as well...
 
Potashminer said:
Maybe an example of a twin mounted on a WWI aircraft?? Had read about the singles - was a fair bit of commotion to work out an interrupter system to avoid shooting your own propellor off with one machine gun, so not sure how that was dealt with forward firing twins?? I do know from my Dad (RCAF WWII) that most all guns would let rip at the same time, so long as they could, but they were mounted in the wings of the fighters of the day. Also, Allies had multiple configurations of fighter armament during WWII - from 8 x 303's to 4 x 50's to 2 x 50's plus 2 x 20mm and so on. I am sure the firing controls varied as well...
Click to expand...

Pretty much every German fighter after the introduction of he interupter and most of the allied ones after they copied the mechanism had two firing forward through prop arc.
 
Edit...Opps! My bad, wrong war...

ERIEkbJ.jpg


Sopwith Camel Armament 2 Vickers 7.7mm (.303in) machine guns with the propeller synchronizing mechanism.

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Four Browning .303 machine guns and four 20-mm Hispano cannon,
 
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On a Camel each gun had a 250 round belt, so you had 25 seconds of ammo. You would think a Vickers could do that without a stoppage, although you do hear "my guns jammed" a fair bit.
 
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