ok dear sirs,(and to all that are here) i am thinking what if ww1 went more tank heavy and the germans came out with the first tank killer aircraft? i am thinkin a 20mm or 30 mm gun. i read the brits had a 37 for balloon bustin.
what would be the outside barrel diameter for those said type of guns?
thank you all
Hmmm. You've got three 'real world' options, maybe four. The Germans fielded a 13 mm bolt-action
rifle called the T-gewehr, really the first anti-tank rifle. A heavy machine gun the TuF ( Tank und Flieger )
based on the same 13mm round-it looks like an oversized Maxim or Vickers. A 20 mm cannon, the
Becker ( that eventually, after another development cycle, became the famous Oerlikon ) and a
short barreled 37 mm cannon that I don't know too much about.
The Germans did experiment
with downward firing machine guns, but they weren't too successful from what I've read-problems
in aiming them effectively given the pilot's view. But if you're building this as a two seater, who's to
say they wouldn't have put an observer/gunner in a forward gondola, just under the nose?