Synchronised Forward-Firing MGs

I am aware of when the Germans introduced synchronised forward-firing MGs on their aircraft, but am having some difficultly finding out how long it took the RFC to catch up with this technology.

Could someone give me a date and aircraft type, please, which was the first to be introduced in answer to the "Fokker Scourge"?

Thanks
Steve

[EricGoedkoop]

I think the first British plane with a syncronized MG was the Bristol Scout D, March 1916.

["Junior"]

The Sopwith 1½ Strutter was actually the first BRITISH aircraft to see front line service with interrupter gear not the Bristol. Whether this was before the Nieuport 17 changed to a synchronised Vickers somebody else may know.

Junior.

[R Pope]

The Fokkers were knocked from prominence by the unsynchronised guns of DH-2s and Nieuport 11's. The Sopwith Pup with a Sopwith-Kauper gear and the Bristol Scout with a Vickers-Challenger system came along in mid 1916, but in insufficient numbers to have any long-term effect. The more reliable C.C. gear is what made the Camel and SE5a so deadly from 1917 on.I think the Scout arrived at the front first, being doled out in two's and three's to some squadrons, never in strength.

["Junior"]

Just found out that the Sopwith 1½ Strutter was the first British aeroplane to enter front-line service equipped with interrupter gear on 24th May 1916.

This from the RAF Museum website:

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/mileston...ry/1916_2.html

"24 May
The first Sopwith 1½ Strutter 2-seat fighters arrive in France with No.70 Squadron. The 1½ Strutter was the first British aeroplane to enter front-line service equipped with interrupter gear, allowing a machine gun to fire through the propeller arc, and it also had a Lewis gun mounted in the rear cockpit."

Cheers,

Junior.

[EricGoedkoop]

Originally Posted by Junior

Just found out that the Sopwith 1½ Strutter was the first British aeroplane to enter front-line service equipped with interrupter gear on 24th May 1916.

This from the RAF Museum website:

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/mileston...ry/1916_2.html

"24 May
The first Sopwith 1½ Strutter 2-seat fighters arrive in France with No.70 Squadron. The 1½ Strutter was the first British aeroplane to enter front-line service equipped with interrupter gear, allowing a machine gun to fire through the propeller arc, and it also had a Lewis gun mounted in the rear cockpit."

Cheers,

Junior.

Well, now I'm just confused. Checking around, I do see the Bristol Scout D commonly described as the first British plane with a synchronized MG. Production dates are given as March 1916, but I haven't found delivery dates. Competing claims, it would seem.

I wonder if the confusion comes from the Strutter being the first British bus designed to have a synchronized gun, whereas the Scout was an old design adapted to the technology?

["Junior"]

You should be wary of basing things on production dates as an aircraft's posting to a front line squadron can be quite later than when production began, case in point being the Snipe. Also initially the Scout D did not carry a synchronised gun. The modification to a synchronised Vickers occurred later.

Personally I'm not one to argue with the RAF's own Museum, they usually tend to have their facts right

And apparently even Roden think the same!

http://www.rodenplant.com/HTML/402.htm

Cheers,

Junior.

[EricGoedkoop]

Originally Posted by Junior

Personally I'm not one to argue with the RAF's own Museum, they usually tend to have their facts right

Sir, Yes, Sir.

[mossie]

[Source: Early Aircraft Armament]

Bristol Scout No 5313 fitted with Vickers-Challenger gear and sent to France on 25 March 1916. Went to No12 Sqn and then No11 Sqn where it was flown by Lt. Albert Ball. He drove down an Albatros on the 15 May. The aircraft crashed the next day and was written off. Other Bristol Scouts from the same production batch were also fitted with the gear.

Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters were also fited, arriving in France 30 July 1916. Some of the Strutters were also fitted with Scarff-Dybovsky gear, RNAS machines.

[Source: Flying Guns of WWI]

The first allied aircrfat with a reliable synchronised mounting was the Bristol Scout D, in ...March 1916. The Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter also entered service in early 1916.

So it would seem on these two sources and indications of production records that the Bristol was first at this point.

[Old Man]

It concentrates on the Constaninescu Gear, and is in error concerning M. Gilbert's work on the matter for the Morane-Saulnier firm, but is otherwise pretty solid, and lays out all the various early English gears.

http://fluid.power.net/fpn/const/const003.html