Maschinengewehr 08 gun porn
Continuing my discussion of World War One aviation from WWJWD, here I’ll do a little gun porn.
The Fokker E. series of fighters during WWI were the first fighters to mount the interrupter gear that allowed them to fire their machine guns directly through the propeller arc without damaging the propeller. This gave the E. series a tremendous advantage in air to air combat, as to aim the guns, the pilot had to simply aim the plane.
The machine gun that the E. series uses so effectively was the Maschinengewehr 08, or as it was often known, the Spandau MG08. The Fokker Eindecker aircraft mounted two of the “lMG08” (light MachineGun) models as early as 1915. Chambered for 7.92mm, with a cyclic rate of 400 rpm, one can only imagine the fear that Allied reconissance pilots would felt when they saw the silhouette of an Eindecker diving out of the sun.
Link to image of the ground emplacement version of the MG08.
August 13th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I love WWI aviation.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:21 am
MG 08 AKA Maxim Gun was the standard machinegun of Germany and Russia and virtually identical to the Vickers Gun used by the Brits.
They shoot and shoot and shoot.