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Old April 22nd, 2008, 12:42 PM
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Default Re: Engineering a better / worse airplane

Quote:
Originally Posted by mac_bolan00 View Post
aha.. the slower the rate of fire, the higher the retardation upon synchronization, right?
No, it isn't as simple as that (in fact, other things being equal, the faster the "free" RoF, the bigger the percentage loss on synchronisation). The loss of RoF depends on the nature of the synchronisation system, the propeller type and the mechanism of the gun.

The best systems were WW2 German MG 131 and MG 151 guns which used electrical priming; the loss was only around 10%. The typical figure for most other systems was probably around 25%. Constant-speed propellers were easier to synch for than fixed-pitch single-gear types whose speed changed with the engine revs.

Why the big Browning (and its Japanese derivatives) was so bad I'm not sure; I suspect a heavy firing pin mechanism with considerable inertia, which built in a longer than usual delay between pressing the firing trigger and the gun actually firing. For best results, that delay had to be as short as possible.
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