Spitfire/Hurricane Brownings

Nice photo Cotteswold. Would much rather be behind than in front of them!

50-odd years ago, a rebuilt SE5a was flown at the Farnborough Airshow, and fired live rounds into a sandpit situated in front of the crowd line.

The guns themselves (unless deactivated) are Section 5 firearms in the UK and as such would only be allowed with special permission from the Home Secretary (which he is never going to give!!).

We’ve heard sound.

Now we see it!

= Tim

It’s all very well sticking inert or dummy Brownings in but the OP is about live firing – the nearest I suspect you’re ever going to get is the sound/sight in the Fagen Fighters Twilight Tear link I posted above…

I do remember a photo of the Hurricane (with Sir Tim Wallis in front of it) during its rebuild, and there was a set of Brownings lying on the ground in front of it.

And New Zealand; They had a P-40 firing its guns at the Wanaka Airshow a few years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiYDP74HIEs

Hi all, I also think that when we did the wings for Sir Tim Wallis’s Hurricane P3351 we put all the mounts in for the m/c guns & it was rumoured that they were going to be active for use at wannaka, shooting barrels out of the lake !! Only rumour though. Any thoughts on this one anybody ??

Steve”P”

Hurricane R4118 has its original weapons fitted – but inactive.

P-51 Twilight Tear in the US – owned by Ron Fagan had live firing (actual bullets) on the ground.

The P-40 at Wanaka mentioned above had aerial firing of blanks.

It would be possible to ground fire an armed up Spitfire in the US – just needs a motivated owner to fund it.

And New Zealand; They had a P-40 firing its guns at the Wanaka Airshow a few years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiYDP74HIEs

Great clip – shame about the asshattery in the comments section, though.

Andy – thanks for the confirmation on P9374.

I seem to recall BM597 has deactivated cannons and machine-guns, too.

I can’t recall, though, if P9374 or X4650 has a full set of guns fitted, though.

Yes, P9374 has a full battery of de-activated Browning .303 machine guns complete with correctly dated ammo!

Whilst all are guns and ammo inert, the operating system is all in place as per the original.

In the US it is permitted to have the guns in the aircraft but they have to be, often refered to as, “De-Mill’d”. AKA de militarized. I saw a .50 cal in a P-51 with a modification to breech by welding a plug at the end of the breech so that the weapon would only accept a blank cartridge, shorter than a “real” round, which could be fired and ejected. There was also a nub welded inside the barrel where it joined the reciever and blocked about 25% of the barrel diameter there by not allowing a projectile to exit the barrel. Also saw similar setups on Russian warbirds in the US like a MiG 17 & 15 for their cannons.
Cheers,
Itch

The P-40 Currawong fired it’s guns (with blanks) at Wanaka in 2012, several photographers captured muzzle flashes (and falling casings).

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=466879#p466935

And New Zealand; They had a P-40 firing its guns at the Wanaka Airshow a few years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiYDP74HIEs

ooo thats quality!

Only in America!

Under a civvy licence, very likely not. Carrying weapons is a huge no-no under air law. For good reason too. I could perceivably take off in a now kosher live military aircraft and strafe your house in a sudden onset of madness.

I believe a Hurricane was trying in the USA to get it approved so they could go out in the desert and fire them, but that was a strong rumour, I don’t know 100% how far they got or indeed if they tried.. The right to bear arms and Automatic weapons being legal in some states etc was the case.

How about six .50 cal in a P-51?….

http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1826158611001

I seem to recall BM597 has deactivated cannons and machine-guns, too.

I can’t recall, though, if P9374 or X4650 has a full set of guns fitted, though.

I seem to remember the Vacher Hurricane R4118 has a fully functioning gun firing mechanism, although ofcourse the guns are dummies/deactivated. There was a feature on the TV news about the first flight, and with the gun panels off the pilot demonstrated how the triggers went click when he pushed the fire button.

Here you go, none of that big Hollywood muzzle flash business either. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PjLpqWFFEo

In a TV programme about a year ago, there was a machine gun recovered from a Spitfire in Ireland. The Irish army reconditioned it mounted it on a tripod and (was it Dan Snow?) fired it. Maybe its on Utube?
mmitch