soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Louis C wrote:


-snip-

> As far as I can tell, the Italian problem is rather that they didn't
> have a 20mm cannon in the works, and that their aircraft weren't
> designed around that weapon so even if they had recognized the
> desirability of switching to 20mm they were stuck with previous
> choices unless they would be willing to make a large investment.

It rather seems that the MC.202 (and other Italian aircraft using the
license-built DB 601 engines) could have utilized the same 20mm cannon
firing through the propellor hub were was utilized in the Bf 109s.

Perhaps the Germans were unwilling to supply suffient cannon - although
they later sold some 800 of their Mauser MG 151 20mm cannon to the
Japanese for use on the Ki.61s.

But it doesn't seem a particularly large additional investment would
have been required to adopt to Bf 109 arrangement to the MC 202.
Certainly license-building the cannon would have required a far smaller
investment than license-building the the DB 601 and 605 engines themselves.

Cheers,