Aircraft guns and their positions

[PMN1]

When did aircraft guns become reliable enough to be able to consider mounting them in the wings?

 

[1635yankee]

Probably about the same time as wings became thick enough to contain them, that is when cantilever wings became de rigueur. I'm not someone with a big interest in guns, especially machine guns, but I suspect that machine guns were sufficiently reliable by the end of WW1.

 

[Scott Kenny]

When did aircraft guns become reliable enough to be able to consider mounting them in the wings?

When there was an air-cooled Vickers gun and the Browning M1919. Then the M2 Browning .50cal in 1924.

But honestly the problem wasn't the guns proper, it was the ammunition quality. All the top aces in WW1 gauged their ammunition in terms of overall length, so that every cartridge was the same length.

 

[riggerrob]

When there was an air-cooled Vickers gun and the Browning M1919. Then the M2 Browning .50cal in 1924.

But honestly the problem wasn't the guns proper, it was the ammunition quality. All the top aces in WW1 gauged their ammunition in terms of overall length, so that every cartridge was the same length.

Even among infantry units, Bren light machine-gunners always got first pick of ammunition.

 

[riggerrob]

It all started during World War 1 when machineguns were first installed in airplanes. Those flimsy wood and fabric airplanes coudl barley carry one or two MGs so it made sense to mount them on the strongest part of the airframe: the fuselage. Mounting them on the fuselage also placed them within reach of pilots to change pan-magazines (Lewis) or belts (Maxim). Cocking handles within reach of the crew also helped.

A second factor was the need for more guns in faster monoplane fighters. Consider how the first few Curtiss P-36 and P-40 had fuselage-mounted guns, but the later P-47 and P-51 got all their guns mounted in their wings.
The first theory was to throw more bullets-per-second at fast-crossing enemy airplanes.
That is why early Spitfires got up to a dozen .303 calibre machine guns. Before WW2, they thought that rifle-caliber MGs were enough to destroy flimsy, fabric-covered biplanes.
Mind you as soon as the Brits worked out the bugs, they soon shifted to installing 4 x 20mm Oerlikon auto-cannons. The heavier cannon shells contained explosives and were better at damaging all-metal bombers.

 

[Arjen]

That is why early Spitfires got up to a dozen .303 calibre machine guns.

Early Spitfires flew with eight .303 calibre machine guns.
Production Hurricane IIBs flew with twelve .303 calibre machine guns, so did Tornado and Typhoon prototypes.

as soon as the Brits worked out the bugs, they soon shifted to installing 4 x 20mm Oerlikon auto-cannons

Hispano-Suiza HS.404 20mm were used, Oerlikon FF found its way to allied ships. FF and HS.404 had some shared ancestry.

Other than that, generally correct.