Quote:
Originally Posted by mac_bolan00
and how come american designers never mounted weapons on the cowling for single-engines?
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They did; it was the standard installation early in the war (see P-36, P-40, A-36) and even continued in the P-39 and P-63. Only when they realised that they needed a battery of .50 cal guns to be effective (too many to fit in a cowling) did they decide to follow the RAF route and put all of the guns in the wings, as this was simpler and more reliable.
The big Browning also lost a lot of its rate of fire when synchronised - around 40%.