Firing Through The Propeller: The Engine Literally Pulls the Trigger It was therefore preferable to avoid hitting the propeller. The propeller blades were typically made of laminated wood and the impacts, despite being deflected away by the steel deflectors, would cause the glue to weaken and the layers to separate. While he scored several kills, he was forced to land due to engine failure, possibly caused by strain on the engine’s crankshaft by the bullets striking the deflectors.īut besides putting a strain on the engine, deflectors caused another problem. This one was used by Roland Garros in April 1915 as a backup for the synchronization approach I talk more about below. Shown here is a propeller with the wedges mounted at the correct radial distance from the center and with tiebars for bracing. Any bullets which hit it were deflected to one side. One way to at least minimize propeller damage was to mount a steel wedge to the backside of the blades in line with where the bullets flew. Surprisingly, the first solution wasn’t really a solution at all but more of a hacked-together workaround. It would not do to cut away the ends of the wooden blades in mid-flight. However, there was the small issue of having a propeller in the way. The pilot could steer the plane and aim the gun by the same action and could clear jams and reload. The most effective and preferred single-pilot fighter aircraft machine gun mounting was in front of the pilot on the fuselage where vibration was at a minimum. Deflecting Bullets Fired at the Propeller This allowed them to shoot at the enemy from below and to the rear. Pilots found that they could also fire with the gun partway along the rail, such that it was pointing upward. It could then be raised back up through a combination of springs and bungee cords. The machine gun was mounted on a curved rail so that it could be pulled down by the pilot for clearing any jams and reloading. The British Foster mounting shown here was one such example. But it allowed the pilot to both steer the plane and fire the gun at the same time. Being on the wing instead of the fuselage, it did lose accuracy due to vibration. Firing Over The Propellerįor biplanes, the upper wing offered a location to mount a forward facing machine gun which would fire above the propeller. Though with later multi-crewed bombers, mechanics did often venture out onto the wings to perform maintenance. Also, with the guns so far away, the pilot couldn’t clear jams or reload. You may ask, why not mount forward-facing machine guns onto the wings? During World War I wings were braced using cables and didn’t provide as rigid a mounting position as the fuselage, resulting in vibrations which reduced accuracy. Some larger aircraft did carry dedicated gunners, such as the German AEG G.IV bomber pictured here but dedicated fighter craft carried just the pilot. It was when machine guns came into use in the latter part of 1914 that aerial combat really began. With the pilot both trying to fly the plane and fire a weapon at the same time, none of this was very effective. The pistols were inaccurate and the rifles had a small chance of hitting a critical component.
Image source: CASMĪt the start of the war, aerial combat involved pilots firing bullets at each other using handheld pistols or rifles and even throwing out rope to tangle the enemy’s propeller. The engineers became pretty inventive, even finding ways to fire bullets through the path of the wooden propeller blades while somehow not tearing them to splinters.Įarly Aerial Combat AEG G.IV bomber with two gunner positions. Most airplanes still used wooden frames, fabric-covered wings, and external cable bracing. This was during World War I which spanned 1914 to 1918 and the controllable airplane had been invented a mere eleven years before. But it certainly wasn’t as simple as just bolting one to the chassis. Whomever could boost firepower and accuracy would have the upper hand and so machine guns were added to planes. Early airborne combat was more like a drive-by shooting as pilot used handheld firearms to fire upon other aircraft.