quite awesome contraption
WWI austro-hungarian air force gunner with 10 Mauser C96 pistols

Necessity.
You're looking at it......

Can't imagine it would be very effective. The range would be quite short and the 9mm round would be travelling too slow to do much damage. Interesting design and innovation for an aircraft though.

certainly would need to be wearing eye protection when firing that contraption. Which, BTW, is pretty innovated.

Vince, those bi-planes flew pretty slow and dogfights were in close so it might have been more effective than we might first think.

I'd say they'd have to get into some pretty close combat, with the wind and the weak round. But it may be more scare tactic and make a guy duck for cover, probably wouldn't harm an aircraft much. Really like his hat and mustache.


Suz

a battery direct hit on a fabric,wood and wire plane would possibly be more effective than first thought.
neat photo.

Vince wrote:

Can't imagine it would be very effective. The range would be quite short and the 9mm round would be travelling too slow to do much damage. Interesting design and innovation for an aircraft though.

Oh I dunno... planes of that era had wood props... someone come up behind you and you fire into the prop, the spinning prop contacts the bullet... if it splinters or throws the prop out of balance its all over for the chaser.

Definitely close range... but I dont think the bullet velocity needs to be too great. In fact slower might be better as it gives the prop more time to spin and hit it.

Very curious though... guess this is what happens when you have way more firearms than soldiers.

-DallanC

Didn't look at it that way Dallan.

I saw a YouTube video the other day where a couple of guys removed the calibration gizmo between the machine gun and the prop then fired a heap of rounds 'through' the spinning propeller. They actually put four .308 rounds through one blade of the spinning wooden prop and it had negligible effect, although the prop was only doing 1500 rpm. a few more rounds would have weakened it to point where the last 10" or so of the blade would most likely have broken off though. That would be what I would classify as a catastrophic failure.

Could have been shooting at blimps I suppose. The front-line lookouts. Squirrels in high tree tops. Food might have been scarce. Maybe coconuts...apples stuff like that.....stray dogs...geese or ducks. The guy chosen to sit there and be in charge of that brutal armament must have had the short straw. Can you imagine his surprise when the flight officer assigned him that position and then he climbed aboard and realized he was the target. Sitting in a tub surrounded by fabric and they give him some BB guns to fend off who knows what's commin at him?

Well the other guys might have had some equally brutal armament like maybe squirt guns full of glue solvent....or maybe they were flinging lit matches at them or the infamous throwing of a large cloth to temporarily blind them....ya never know what menacing devices they could have come up with. Don't know if you could throw a cream pie that far....but it's a thought.


Suz
don't let me
get ahead
of you...

Suzanne wrote:

Could have been shooting at blimps I suppose. The front-line lookouts.

Completely unrelated trivia: My grandfather in WW1 was one of those balloon spotter guys. They'd release the balloon raising it up quickly to the end of the rope, he'd take some quick notes then they'd pull him down ASAP as the enemy would always open fire when they saw a balloon.

Later on he got promoted to a motorcycle driver and got to drive generals around in a sidecar lol.


-DallanC

Vince wrote:

Didn't look at it that way Dallan. I saw a YouTube video the other day where a couple of guys removed the calibration gizmo between the machine gun and the prop then fired a heap of rounds 'through' the spinning propeller. They actually put four .308 rounds through one blade of the spinning wooden prop and it had negligible effect, although the prop was only doing 1500 rpm. a few more rounds would have weakened it to point where the last 10" or so of the blade would most likely have broken off though. That would be what I would classify as a catastrophic failure.

Huh, I'll have to go look at it. When my dad was in the navy as a pilot (cold war days) he mentioned even the aluminum props of the time could get out of balance hitting ice / hail and shake the engine to the point the bearings fail and the entire prop tears loose. He's been in several flying planes that lost props (in those cases the engine seized and the prop tore itself off). Said its mighty spooky hoping it doesn't come off going towards the body of the plane.

My old man has been through some crazy, unbelievable stuff for sure, best of which was a head on plane collision at 5000ft elevation. Survived that one too.


-DallanC

Dallan Da Bossman wrote:

...My old man has been through some crazy, unbelievable stuff for sure, best of which was a head on plane collision at 5000ft elevation. Survived that one too.

How did he manage to survive a head on collision mate? I'd say outstanding airmanship, but after colliding with another plane it would be more a case of hang on and pray.

The you tube video I saw is by the Slow Mo Guys. Having another look at it they didn't use an actual plane, just a mock up.

Bullets vs Propeller in Slow Motion - The Slow Mo Guys

One thing for sure, with the low expectancy of long life, these pilots got to be a little crazy. My full admiration to them.