Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Nashwan on March 21, 2004, 10:09:55 AM
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A question for the Spit and/or armament experts; were belt fed cannons fitted to the Spit Vb, or just to the Vc? If not, why not?
Thanks in advance for any replies.
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You mean for 120 rounds instead of 60 right?
Looking at the tech drawings of the wings I don't believe there were, unless they modified B wing to do so. But that would require sawing through spars because there isn't enough space to accomadate all the ammo. So i can't see that they would have done it. The C wing position of the cannon is quite a bit more forward than the B wing and has suitable space for 120 rounds per cannon for 4 cannon....:D
It's shame my scanner isn't working otherwise i could show you.
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You mean for 120 rounds instead of 60 right?
Yes.
Looking at the tech drawings of the wings I don't believe there were, unless they modified B wing to do so. But that would require sawing through spars because there isn't enough space to accomadate all the ammo. So i can't see that they would have done it.
Spitfire the history has the following pictures (these are only parts of the pics) on p 156 (second edition)
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/282_1079889028_hispanobelt.jpg)
The book labels this "diagram of B wing armament with belt fed Hispanos", but I think the caption is wrong, and this is a C wing. The bay the cannon is in appears wide enough for 2 cannon, which is waht makes me think this is a C.
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/282_1079888993_spitvb.jpg)
This is a cutaway of the Vb wing, from the same page. As you can see, the cannon bay is only wide enough for 1 cannon.
However, the magazine bay appears to be the same size as the bay in the C wing installation above.
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Yeah the top caption is a C wing. The 2nd cannon would be sat to the right of the cannon with it's ammo box below the 1st cannon's box.
The cannon in a B wing is much further back in the wing. The rear of the cannon in a B wing is only several inches away from the rear of the wing- as in the 2nd caption.
The ammo drum is only about 1/2 to 2/3 of the size of the space it fits in. But it's at a rather awkward angle and has lots of bracing to prevent it from moving. Otherwise it could of had a higher amo capacity.
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We had this discussion not too long ago. Spit the History has it's moments where captions are not always accurate.
http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=108636
No belt fed Vbs, just drum fed with 60 rounds. 120 was with the belt fed Vcs.
Dan/Slack
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thanks Dan. Now if I'd seen that thread first, I wouldn't have had to scan the pictures in myself :)