Engine gun

French Hispano-Suiza 12Y aircraft engine (cylinders removed) with Hispano-Suiza HS.404 engine gun mounted
Luftwaffe soldier inspects the engine gun alignment of a Bf 109 fighter aircraft
Firing channel on a Daimler-Benz DB 605 for an engine gun.

An engine gun, or engine cannon (from German: Motorkanone, "motor cannon"), is an aircraft gun mounted behind and through the cylinder block of an inline aircraft engine (most often a V engine) with a reduction drive that displaces the propeller axle to be in line with the gun so that gunfire is allowed through the propeller hub. This allows for nose-mounted weaponry on aircraft without the need for synchronization gear while also permitting higher calibers for nose-mounted weaponry, which otherwise would be hard to adapt for synchronization gear.[1]

The first time this was done was during World War I when the French modified the Hispano-Suiza 8 engine to be able to install a 37 mm autocannon.[2] The concept was used widely before the Jet Age.

Historical engine guns

Finnish guns

French guns

German guns

Soviet guns

Swiss guns

Engine gun installations

A geared-output shaft HS 8C engine for a SPAD S.XII WWI aircraft, showing the elevated intake manifold to clear the 37 mm cannon (shown to the right) mounted in the "V" between the cylinder banks.

French engines

German engines

Soviet engines

Swiss engines

Aircraft with engine guns

Czechoslovak aircraft

Czechoslovak Avia Bk-534, a biplane with a 20 mm engine gun

Finnish aircraft

French aircraft

French SPAD S.XII, a World War I aircraft with a 37 mm engine gun

German aircraft

Italian aircraft

Fiat G.55 Centauro with engine gun (MG 151/20)

Soviet aircraft

Yakovlev Yak-9K with the 45 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-45 engine gun mounted

Swedish aircraft

Swiss aircraft

Swiss EKW C-3604, an attacker with a 20 mm engine gun

Yugoslavian aircraft

References

  1. ^ "PART V AUTOMATIC AIRCRAFT CANNON". ibiblio.org. Retrieved 2025-05-18.
  2. ^ Thorsson, Nils (1975). Historik och kartläggning av vapenmateriel för flygplan. Arboga, Sweden. p. 25.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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