a lot of documentaries are just re-hashing stuff you had heard before...

this one had a fact I had not heard:

to maximize the effectiveness of the Hawker Hurricanes EIGHT .303 machine guns - they were zeroed to concentrate fire in one spot 200 meters in front of the plane

thought that was a pretty cool tidbit -- can you imagine having the bullets of EIGHT Browning machine guns chewing apart your plane all at once???

according to the show each gun had 400 rds IIRC - enough for 14 seconds of continuous fire (broken into bursts of course)

amazing backstory about how combat aviation shifted from advance Bi-plane around 1936 and by the late 30s they were ancient history as materials and engine technology LEAPT forward

fascinating stuff from a design / technology perspective

the Spitfires got the glory but apparently the Hurricane was the workhorse from the outset and outnumbered the Spitfire's success.

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Several WW2 aircraft had a similar gun setup, whereas each barrel could be set to aim at a particular point in order to converge bullets.
Heres a clip of how a P51’s 6 Browning 50 Cals were set up.

Interesting story about an F-11 that shot itself out of the sky

https://www.popularmechanics.c...at-shot-itself-down/

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:

the Spitfires got the glory but apparently the Hurricane was the workhorse from the outset and outnumbered the Spitfire's success.

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To be fair, that was because the Spits took on the German fighter escorts, allowing the slower, less maneuverable Hurricanes (which, also to be fair, were a more stable 'gun platform') to engage the bombers.

What was the name of the documentary?

Thinking about it...I’d a lot rather be in a plane receiving rounds from 8-.303s than 6-.50s.