Focke-Wulf FW-190 Cannon/MG Interruption

Its an electro mechanical system; the interruptor gear is driven off the back of the engine. The guns are actuated eletrically, but they require air bottles to fire them, and the interruptor gear determines when they can be fired.

A complex system indeed!

Bruce

Thanks for that, electronic firing is obviously the way to control the weapons to avoid prop hits, but I still wonder how much the rate of fire was reduced by having to have gaps in the bursts to allow each plade to pass, compared with Spitfires, Hurricanes, P47 etc that had no restrictions.

Richard

Just something that has puzzled me for some while, and for which I can find no reference. Books all mention the various weapons options used on the FW-190, often two mounted just above the engine and two in the wing root, but no where do they refer to how the guns were prevented from shooting off the propeller. I assume it was a similar hydraulic system to that used in WW1 but was it totally reliable and what effect on rate of fire, if any, did it have?

Richard

To quote from that bastion of accurate information, Wiki (end sarcasm):

Another aspect of the new design was the extensive use of electrically powered equipment instead of the hydraulic systems used by most aircraft manufacturers of the time. On the first two prototypes, the main landing gear was hydraulic. Starting with the third prototype, the undercarriage was operated by push buttons controlling electric motors in the wings, and was kept in position by electric up and down-locks.[11] The armament was also loaded and fired electrically. Tank believed that service use would prove that electrically powered systems were more reliable and more rugged than hydraulics, electric lines being much less prone to damage from enemy fire.[9]

It would be easy to fit a set of contacts to disable the firing circuit when the prop would be obstructing the muzzle of that specific gun.

Reference #9 is page 12 of Focke-Wulf Fw 190: Workhorse of the Luftwaffe. by Spencer, Jay P.; Published for the National Air and Space Museum by the Smithsonian Institution Press, Mar 1, 1987; ISBN 0-87474-885-2.

Reference #11 is “Fw 190 Undercarriage.” by Stephenson, Robert and E. Brown Ryle III; HyperScale—An Online Magazine for Aircraft and Armour Modellers, 2003.

There’s a few others too (seeing service in WW2)….
P-35,
P-36 / Hawk 75,
P-39,
P-40B,C (Tomahawk),
P-43,
Mustang I / A-36 Apache,
XF4F (prototype Wildcat),
F2A / B239/ B339/ B439 Buffalo,
TBM Avenger,
SBD Dauntless,
SBU Vindicator / Chesapeake (Cheesecake),
Gloster Gladiator (as previously mentioned),
Gloster Gauntlet,
Bristol Bulldog,
Fairey Swordfish,
(and a host of Dutch and Soviet fighters but OP only referred to UK and US types).

Gloster Gladiator for one.