Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: adrian%cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk@NSFNET-RELAY.AC.UK (Adrian Hurt) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: German WW2 Fighters Message-ID: <10499@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 23 Oct 89 23:08:52 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: Computer Science, Heriot-Watt U., Scotland Lines: 42 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Adrian Hurt In article <10310@cbnews.ATT.COM> you write: > >There was no substantial wing bulge on the Bf 109E; bulges did not become a >problem until the Bf 109G. I suppose it depends on what you mean by "substantial". The 20mm cannons did definitely need bulges in the wings to accomodate them. The bulges were on the underside, and are clearly visible on any photo which shows the undersides of the wings clearly; they can also be seen on any decent model of the Bf 109E, or in a museum if you're lucky enough to have access to one with a Bf 109E in it. I stand by my statement that after the Emil, no Bf 109 ever again had guns permanently mounted in the wings. >... Other pilots considered the Bf 109E-4 to be the >very best Bf 109 variant ever; arguments over Bf 109 armament raged for years. >The controversy led to the Bf 109F, which was intentionally very lightly armed >so as to get maximum flight performance. The Bf 109F had only one 20mm gun in the nose, plus the two MG17's. But that 20mm gun was the MG 151, whose fire rate made it comparable to two MG FF's. From what I've read, that plus the improved handling over the Bf 109E made the Bf 109F some pilots' favourite version. Of course, compared to the Fw 190's with two MG 151's, or four in later versions, the Bf 109 was always lightly armed. >With the Bf 109G, the emphasis returned to heavy firepower again, where it was >to stay The heavy firepower being mostly provided by the bolt-on packs I mentioned in my posting. These included wing pods with a MG 151 in each, or 21cm rocket pods. The Fw 190 could also take such bolt-on packs, but its gun pods had two MG 151's each. That's a total of eight MG 151's, each with a fire rate double that of other Brand X 20mm guns - how's that for firepower! -- "Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott Adrian Hurt | JANET: adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian | ARPA: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk