From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Optimizing fighter aircraft armament, focusing on gun installations and ammunition capacity.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 176\1\ img022 | |
| Date | 7th July 1940 | |
| - 2 - Cont'd.{John DeLooze - Company Secretary} Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}11/ML.7.7.40. IS THE BEST POSSIBLE USE BEING MADE OF THE GUNS AVAILABLE. i.e. THE .303 AND THE 20 mm. HISPANO. 2-gun 20 mm. installations are at present being introduced in the Service for trial. The disturbing feature is that both the fighter aircraft designers think that the minimum installation should be a 4-gun one and that there is no difficulty whatever in accomodating the 4 guns and adequate ammunition, designs having already been prepared in both cases. They are most anxious to get these 4-gun installations tried out as soon as possible, but there does not seem to be any enthusiasm for this project. Why should there be an intense desire to get as many 303's as possible on a fighter aircraft and at the same time no desire to get as many 20 mm's as possible on the same aircraft? In addition to the 4-gun installations it is undoubtedly possible to produce a satisfactory 20 mm. 6-gun installation, and this, in the opinion of the designers, will not unduly overload the machine nor spoil its performance. Should not, at least, an experimental installation be made up and tried out? With the 2 and 4 Hispano installations it is possible, to incorporate a certain number of .303 Brownings. Why is it not permissable to supplement the 20 mm. guns with .303 guns, to augment the fire power? IS THE OUTLOOK ON THE QUANTITY OF AMMUNITION TO BE CARRIED, LOGICAL? In the immediate future it may be anticipated that the majority of our fighter aircraft will not have to look for targets. They may be so busy that they must do the maximum amount of execution between periods of re-armament. At present there seems to be a general agreement from pilots that even without these new conditions, they would like more ammunition. The aircraft designers seem to have appreciated this point and say there is no difficulty about carrying more ammunition and they have provided for it. They have been told, however, that if a pilot is given more than a certain amount of ammunition he will overheat his gun barrels. At the same time, the turret is provided with twice as much ammunition per gun as a fighter. - Continued - | ||