Did old fighter planes shoot through propellers?

From 1918 to the mid-1930s the standard armament for a fighter aircraft remained two synchronized rifle-calibre machine guns, firing forward through the arc of the propeller.

How did ww1 planes not shoot through propellers?

There are many different types of synchronization gear, but the simplest involves an irregular-shaped disk that triggers the gun to fire once per revolution, at a specific point. This produces a high rate of fire without the risk of hitting the propeller.

Why don’t planes shoot their propellers?

The system worked because of its synchronization gear which kept the gun from firing when the propeller would be hit by the bullet. While airborne the prop would actually be spinning five times as fast as the weapon could fire, so there was little margin of error.

Who invented machine gun through propeller?

Improving upon the French invention of the so-called ‘deflector gear’, which enabled fighter pilots to use machine guns to fire through aircraft propeller blades, Anton Fokker devised the much-improved interrupter gear in 1915.

What country developed the interrupting gear for the machine guns on planes?

French
Learn about this topic in these articles: …in the form of an interrupter gear, or gun-synchronizing device, designed by the French engineer Raymond Saulnier. This regulated a machine gun’s fire so as to enable the bullets to pass between the blades of the spinning propeller.

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.

How did the invention of the gun change the WWII air battle?

We will say however that it did change the way air battles were fought. As you can imagine, beforehand a plane had a gunner in the back of the plane firing independently at other planes. The introduction of a weapon that was stored internally and could be fired straight changed air maneuvering tactics to a great extent.

Why do airplanes have to be armed?

The advent of armed airplanes also presaged air-to-air combat – the “dogfights” of the impending Great War – which meant that the brief era of unarmed, single airplanes being used as scouts was over. Henceforth all warplanes would have to be armed or escorted by other armed aircraft, regardless of their mission.