Lethality of the MG 131 might surprise you

[Sturm]

I have been trying to see how the guns compare on the LW fighters.  Ok 7.9 didn't test took to many to get a kill on a single fighter by the time you got around to getting that kill someone else came in stole your kill landed rearmed came back up adn stole your next kill.

Now the MG 131 on several occasions I was able to score kills with just mg's.  I do think they hit rather hard, bout 10 flash hits on a spit and he was toast.  Now the buffs is a different story, but then again aim for the wing.  Within 3-400 the 131 can shred a plane a part, high ROF and you can land them rather easily.  I have brought down 47's with just mg's after a quick 1-2 second pull of the trigger.  

I am still not convinced on the 151 hitting power but the 131 is right on in my book.  

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Sturm6 StaffelKapitän
JV44 Platzschutzstaffel
Airfield Defense Squadron
"Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl harbor?"  Famous quote from Animal House, John Belushi.

[LLv34_Camouflage]

When I fly the single 30mm cannon equipped G-6, most of my kills come after I've ran out of cannon and start using the mgs.  

Camo

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Camouflage
XO, Lentolaivue 34
 www.muodos.fi/LLv34

Brewster into AH!

"The really good pilots use their superior judgement to keep them out of situations
where they might be required to demonstrate their superior skill."

[Tony Williams]

The MG 131 fired smaller projectiles at a lower muzzle velocity than the 15mm MG 151.  Yes, the rate of fire was a bit higher (although I haven't seen figures quoted for the effect of synchronisation - it was bound to be dropped to 800-850 rpm) but I would still reckon the MG 151 to be uch more effective as well as easier to score hits with.

Tony Williams
Author: Rapid Fire - The Development of Automatic Cannon, Heavy Machine Guns and their Ammunition for Armies, Navies and Air Forces.
Details on my military gun and ammunition website: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~autogun/

[Fishu]

I believe Sturm is talking of MG151/20, not of MG151/15

[MANDOBLE]

Agree Sturm. 1-2 sec burst are enough to kill any fighter with 2x131. Curiously, I also need 1 - 2 secs with 2x151/20 (half the ROF, double damage?).

A note about 190 131s, in RL they had no convergence at all, they had perfect parallel paths. I suppose the same applies to 109s and  205s.

[fats]

Wasn't there one captured Fw 190 tested in England with all weird convs so some guns weren't even aligned horizontally with sight line. Anyway think that listed a conv range for MGs as well, don't recall if it's only vertical convergance range or not.


// fats

[Naudet]

Yes the Mgs on FW had a convergence setting to and the one captured by the brits had one MG way outta convergence, at convergence range the MG tracers passe 2 feet away fromt he path.

LOL 2 feet of dispersion was a thing the Brits found out while testing.

Would be fun to see what they say about the dispersion of the MG151/20 in the D9 of AH. roflmao

[MANDOBLE]

Check this (thanks Verm):
 http://www.vermin.net/fw190/190-gun-2.jpg

Fuselage: 2 Mg131 Harmonization 400m, Crossover: PARALELL. So the bullets dont converge at any point.

Look at the lower table. The 'S1' indicates horizontal separation respect the center (0-100m), and is fixed to 13cm for the 131s while varies for the 151/20.

As you can see in the graph, the 151/20 for internal and outer guns have crossovers of 600m and 800m respectively for an armonization of 550m. It seems that the objetive was not to put a lot of bullets at a single point, but to hit just several points at same time. Perhaps this is related to the power of 151/20 HE rounds...

[This message has been edited by MANDOBLE (edited 04-23-2001).]

[Jekyll]

Also remember that while that chart 'seems' as though the 151/20 drops a lot, and therefore needs quite a bit of 'up' in its initial trajectory, the max distance above the gun sight line is only 78-82 centimetres.

Even at 600 metres downrange, the 151/20 shells have only fallen about 60 cm below the gun sighting line.

And take a look at the relatively tight harmonisation pattern?  In AH it 'looks' as though the 190's guns are mounted in jello!

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Jekyll
9./JG 54 "Grünherz"
Aces High Training Corps