Originally posted by ra:
The Joint Fighter Conference book tells how long the bursts could be, but I'm too lazy to look it up. It was something like 10 seconds for the first burst, then 2 second bursts from then on. The 20mm had a lower RoF and barrel wear was not as bad a problem.
The problem mostly occurred on strafing runs, as most pilots didn't spray very long in air combat.
ra
Just a note, but the limits put on MG bursts in aircraft is not soley because of barrel wear (in an exclusive sense) The electric system and servos for the remote triggers on the gun pull alot of power. The system will lose sufficent power after so many sustained seconds, and has to given brief periods to recharge off the generator.
Infantry and armored vehicles carried extra barrels because it was not uncommon for them to several boxes or belts in a suppressive fire role, without any form of cooling. Aircraft, on the other hand, had some cooling from airflow, and rarely had more than 400 rpg, less than most .50 cal equiped units had.
Oh one other note was the improvement of the propellant in the M2 round, it's the only real reason penetration increased much since WWII.
[ 06-23-2001: Message edited by: Jigster ]