Originally Posted by mac_bolan00
"and how come american designers never mounted weapons on the cowling for single-engines?"

And quite a few fighters up to the beginning of the war had cowl mounted guns.Including the P-26,P-35,P-43,Brewster Buffalo,CW-21 Demon. All used during the war.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman