It could then be raised back up through a combination of springs and bungee cords. Pilots found that they could also fire with the gun partway along the rail, such that it was pointing upward. Deflecting Bullets Fired at the Propeller This allowed them to shoot at the enemy from below and to the rear. The most effective and preferred single-pilot fighter aircraft machine gun mounting was in front of the pilot on the fuselage where vibration was at a minimum. The pilot could steer the plane and aim the gun by the same action and could clear jams and reload. However, there was the small issue of having a propeller in the way. It would not do to cut away the ends of the wooden blades in mid-flight. Surprisingly, the first solution wasn’t really a solution at all but more of a hacked-together workaround. One way to at least minimize propeller damage was to mount a steel wedge to the backside of the blades in line with where the bullets flew. Any bullets which hit it were deflected to one side. Shown here is a propeller with the wedges mounted at the correct radial distance from the center and with tiebars for bracing. This one was used by Roland Garros in April 1915 as a backup for the synchronization approach I talk more about below. While he scored several kills, he was forced to land due to engine failure, possibly caused by strain on the engine’s crankshaft by the bullets striking the deflectors.īut besides putting a strain on the engine, deflectors caused another problem. The propeller blades were typically made of laminated wood and the impacts, despite being deflected away by the steel deflectors, would cause the glue to weaken and the layers to separate.
Firing Through The Propeller: The Engine Literally Pulls the Trigger It was therefore preferable to avoid hitting the propeller.
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