Aircraft Firing Modes

[shotgunneeley]

I'm pretty sure that most fighters could fire their guns from one of two ways: synchronized or alternating. Synchronized called for all of the guns on a plane to fire in unison with each other. This mode would put more of a punch on the target, but the gaps created between shots would be much more pronounced. Alternating mode has one side of the aircraft fire, then the other, repeating in an oscillating fashion. While this would create a better stream of bullets by lessening the gap between shots, it would not pack the same punch that could be obtained by synchronized fire.

There could be a selection box in the hangar, where you set your convergence, that would allow you to pick which mode you prefer. I cannot for the life of me find any text here on the internet that supports this, I'm just going off of what I know from watching the military and history channels, but I'll do my best to find some website sources. 

[rabbidrabbit]

Where are your facts on this?  I could be wrong but didn't all wing guns simply have a trigger and thus fired at their cyclic rate?

[Karnak]

Where are your facts on this?  I could be wrong but didn't all wing guns simply have a trigger and thus fired at their cyclic rate?

This is correct, the OP is wrong.

Spitfires, for example, could fire the cannons, the machine guns or cannons and machine guns together.  Whatever was being fired simply fired at its cyclic rate.


EDIT:

It occurs to me that the OP may have been confused by reading about synchronized guns and misinterpreted what that meant.  Synchronized guns are mechanically or electrically interrupted so that the bullets do not strike the propeller when they gun is mounted within the propeller's disk.  This causes a reduction if the rate of fire of something like 10-40% depending on the type of gun.  Examples of synchronized guns in AH would be the machine guns in the fuselage on the Bf109s, Fw190s, A6Ms, Ki-84 and Yaks and the cannons on the Ki-61, La-5/7, inboard cannons on the Fw190s.  Guns that were outside the propeller's disk, such as on the P-51, Spitfire, P-47, F4F, N1K, Hurricane, F6F, and so on do not need the interrupter gear and thus fire at their full cyclic rate.

[shotgunneeley]

No I'm not talking about the guns being in synchronization with the propeller. What I meant by synchronized fire mode is that all of the guns fired in "unison" with each other, not in relation to the propeller (i.e. wing mounted guns).

Synchronized fire mode                                    Alternating Fire Mode
Left Wing guns   Right Wing guns 2               Left Wing guns    Right Wing guns 2
    boom                      boom                           boom              
                                                                                        boom
    boom                      boom                           boom              
                                                                                        boom
    boom                      boom                           boom      

Of course, with small-medium caliber weapons (.50 cals or less) the cyclic rate is so high that it probably wouldn't matter which mode you fired with the gap between shots would be relatively small. Alternating fire mode would be useful with large caliber weapons (20-30mm) because it offers the greatest chance of hitting the target.    
 
I understand that I might be wrong, I just want make sure y'all know what I'm getting at here. I realize this would only be possible with an aircraft's gun package that had just one type of gun on it (e.g. P51D 6 .50 cals) because the cyclic rate would be the same allowing the guns to theoretically fire in some sort of pattern. With an aircraft with mixed armament (e.g. spitfire mk8 4 .303 and 2 20mm) the cyclic rates would be totally different from one another and would not be able to sustain a pattern. I thought I remembered seeing something about this on TV, but I cant find anything on the internet covering it.    

[rabbidrabbit]

Feel free to research this up but I'll bet your wrong.  The firing mechanism is nothing more than a sear that allows the gun to cycle or not. 

[hitech]

Congrats rabbidrabbit: You made me use a dictionary.

sear:
a pivoted piece that holds the hammer at full cock or half cock in the firing mechanism of small arms.

But I agree with your evaluation, I do not believe guns were linked in any way .

HiTech

[AirFlyer]

I have no idea if this is true or not.... From what I can see though most aircraft guns have to high a rate of fire for this to be noticeable except maybe 30mm+

[shotgunneeley]

so the MG's in say a P51 aren't fired in any sort of set pattern? They're just fired completely at random to the best of their abilities?

OK, I buy that. I concede defeat 

[rabbidrabbit]

Congrats rabbidrabbit: You made me use a dictionary.

sear:
a pivoted piece that holds the hammer at full cock or half cock in the firing mechanism of small arms.

But I agree with your evaluation, I do not believe guns were linked in any way .

HiTech

Now.... if I can just get you to use a spell checker.... ...

[OOZ662]

He's upgraded to Firefox. You'll note he rarely misspells things any more, but he uses homophones much more often.

[rabbidrabbit]

He's upgraded to Firefox. You'll note he rarely misspells things any more, but he uses homophones much more often.

Are you saying he sounds more effeminate when you call and ask questions?   

[kvuo75]

the OP can get a similar effect to "alternating" guns, just tap a round out of one set of guns (with F or backspace), then next time you hit "fire all" they will alternate if you got them sufficiently out of phase.. I do it all the time by accident in the N1K..

[FLS]

the OP can get a similar effect to "alternating" guns, just tap a round out of one set of guns (with F or backspace), then next time you hit "fire all" they will alternate if you got them sufficiently out of phase.. I do it all the time by accident in the N1K..

I believe you're just alternating tracer rounds.

[E25280]

I believe you're just alternating tracer rounds.

I don't think so.  The N1K guns have a relatively slow rate of fire.  If you tap one round out of the primaries, then use fire-all after that, there is a definite change in the firing pattern.

(yes, I do it too, but usually on purpose).

[AirFlyer]

I don't think so.  The N1K guns have a relatively slow rate of fire.  If you tap one round out of the primaries, then use fire-all after that, there is a definite change in the firing pattern.

(yes, I do it too, but usually on purpose).

If I remember correctly the Type 99 MK II fires at about 8 rounds/sec, again I could be wrong but something that fast wouldn't see a difference from what the OP is trying to describe IMO.