Can you identify this EF-126's secondary cannons?

[TimidRaven]

The attached color artwork is from Luftwaffe Secret Projects: Ground Attack and Special Purpose Aircraft by Dieter Herwig and Heinz Rode. It depicts an EF-126 with it's usual cannons as well as two large-calibre guns mounted alongside them. The text inside the book never mentions what they are,and I strongly suspect they're BK 3.7cm guns(the same ones used by certain tank-buster Stukas)but I would love to have confirmation this is the case. Thanks!

 

[Jemiba]

I "transferred" the 3,7cm Flak 18 from a Ju 87G to the side view of the EF-126 (via https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/OKB-1_EF_126),
and I think, it's too big, especially compared to the mid wing version of the EF-126, shown in the same book.
Judging the size, maybe rather the MK 103 ?

 

[Apophenia]

The MK 103 used a belt feed, this guns is depicted with a sideways-facing box magazine. Perhaps the earlier MK 101 with its 30-round box?

OT: This has me wondering if the 2 cm Flak 38 was ever proposed as an aircraft weapon. Its 20 x 138mmB 'Long Solothurn' cartridge was somewhat more powerful than the MG 151/20's round.

 

[Tony Williams]

The MK 103 used a belt feed, this guns is depicted with a sideways-facing box magazine. Perhaps the earlier MK 101 with its 30-round box?

OT: This has me wondering if the 2 cm Flak 38 was ever proposed as an aircraft weapon. Its 20 x 138mmB 'Long Solothurn' cartridge was somewhat more powerful than the MG 151/20's round.

The MK 101 used a 6-round box or a 30-round drum.

The MG C/30L (aka MG 102) was an aircraft version of the Flak 30 firing the same ammo, designed for engine mounting (so had a very long barrel). It fired at 300-350 rpm and used a 100-round drum mounted underneath the gun. It was tested in an He 112 prototype (including in combat in the Spanish Civil War) but while very good at plinking AFVs was reckoned to be too heavy and slow-firing for a fighter. The guns ended their days (with shortened barrels) in the Flak role.

 

[hesham]

The problem is this topic doesn't belong to this section,please Moderator transfer it to Secret Early Aircraft Projects.

done !

 

[iverson]

The attached color artwork is from Luftwaffe Secret Projects: Ground Attack and Special Purpose Aircraft by Dieter Herwig and Heinz Rode. It depicts an EF-126 with it's usual cannons as well as two large-calibre guns mounted alongside them. The text inside the book never mentions what they are,and I strongly suspect they're BK 3.7cm guns(the same ones used by certain tank-buster Stukas)but I would love to have confirmation this is the case. Thanks!

I'm not sure how much one can conclude from an impressionistic sketch of this kind. The BK 3.7-like "magazines" could be no more than artistic liberties.

 

[Jemiba]

My thoughts, too. Looking closely at the picture in the book, those "magazines" seem to have a wing like profile.
So I think, the artist just took the Flak 18 from the Ju 87G., scaled it down to fit the EF 126 and gave those "magazines"
a more aerodynamical shape. To me, they are rather placeholders for some kind of heavy, tank busting gun, than
drawings of a particular type. But who knows, which drawings/documents the artist was working from ?

 

[Hood]

A lot of the artworks in that volume have 'artistic licence' like that with external podded guns etc., so I wouldn't get too steamed up about the accuracy. They were what-if portrayals and not exact plans.

 

[newsdeskdan]

The only known source on the EF 126's armament is A.I.2(G) Report No. 2383 - German Aircraft New and Projected Types. It says that 'Elli' had two MG 151/20s (see below). The entry for 'Walli' - the very similar but rocket-powered EF 127 - says it had two MK 108s. That's verified by at least one other source. My guess is, the artist has assumed that the EF 126 could take the MK 108s AND the MG 151s. And that's what you see depicted in the painting.

 

[Tony Williams]

The only known source on the EF 126's armament is A.I.2(G) Report No. 2383 - German Aircraft New and Projected Types. It says that 'Elli' had two MG 151/20s (see below). The entry for 'Walli' - the very similar but rocket-powered EF 127 - says it had two MK 108s. That's verified by at least one other source. My guess is, the artist has assumed that the EF 126 could take the MK 108s AND the MG 151s. And that's what you see depicted in the painting.

The problem is, both the MG 151 and the MK 108 were invariably belt-fed, so no magazine required to be sticking out of the side of the mounting.

 

[newsdeskdan]

The only known source on the EF 126's armament is A.I.2(G) Report No. 2383 - German Aircraft New and Projected Types. It says that 'Elli' had two MG 151/20s (see below). The entry for 'Walli' - the very similar but rocket-powered EF 127 - says it had two MK 108s. That's verified by at least one other source. My guess is, the artist has assumed that the EF 126 could take the MK 108s AND the MG 151s. And that's what you see depicted in the painting.

The problem is, both the MG 151 and the MK 108 were invariably belt-fed, so no magazine required to be sticking out of the side of the mounting.

That's what the EF 126 was going to be armed with: 2 x MG 151/20 and 2 x AB 250 bomb containers or 12 x Panzerblitz. That's it. So there is no problem. Why attempt to identify a potentially fictional gun?

 

[Jemiba]

As mentioned before, those things to my opinion were drawn as kind of wings/stabilisers/fins, but not
as magazines. Not sure, that the artist knew at all, that they were magazines on the Flak 18 ...

 

[Tony Williams]

That's what the EF 126 was going to be armed with: 2 x MG 151/20 and 2 x AB 250 bomb containers or 12 x Panzerblitz. That's it. So there is no problem. Why attempt to identify a potentially fictional gun?

Well, if someone asks for a weapon to be identified on this forum, it will stimulate a debate as to what might have been in the artist's mind... we can at least be fairly sure of some things that it isn't - the MK 108 has a very short barrel, so it would't be that one.