Recoilless rifle in an aircraft?

[ysi_maniac]

Does anyone of you know if a recoilless rifle has ever been installed in an aircraft? If yes, what was the result?

[Ollie]

I think the Germans tried that on a Do-17 during the war.

It lost its tail I think.

 

[Davey B]

Vickers did toy with a 4.5" aircraft cannon in the late 40s to equip bomber-destroyers, but I don't think it was ever flight-tested.  Certainly not in a fighter.

Be interesting to mount one in an A-10 though    

[Mossie]

Yeah, it was planned to pop it in the Supermaine 508 & others at the time, again I'm not sure if it was trialled or not.

The closest I can think of is the 105mm Howitzer that equiped the AC-130 Spectre gunship.

[kitnut617]

In British Secret Projects - Fighters and Bombers 1935-1950, there's a whole chapter on proposed aircraft that were to be fitted with the recoilless guns.  Some really amazing projects too I might add.

Robert

[JC Carbonel]

it had been claimed during the sixties that a 88mm recoiless was tested on a Ju 87 (in "Profile") and also a 380mm on a Do 217. Pictures have since appeared of a rather derelict Do 17 on a firing stand with the gun underneath and various missing panels, left engine unhinged etc... So my guess is that it WAs tested on the ground and did destroy the carrier aircraft (whatever the results on the target is still unknown)

I understand the russians had recoiless fitted inside the structure of a range of small fighters (à la I-15) this worked well but were one-shot weapons so they did not proceed with the gimmick ...

JCC

[jcf]

The vertically mounted SG 113 that was tested on the FW 190 was a recoilless weapon of the counter-weight or Davis-gun type...as was the 365mm Gerat 104 which was the big gun weapon that appears in  photos mounted on a wheeled test stand, sometimes by itself, sometimes with the beat-up Do 17. According to one source it was also static tested mounted under a Ju 288.

In the counter-weight system the barrel is open at both ends and the breech assembly is in the middle of the weapon. The principle is that when the propelling charge is initiated the expanding gases will drive the projectile and the counter-weight out of the tube in opposite directions...thus canceling recoil. This system does not produce the huge back-blast of gases typical of the familiar directed gas type recoilless rifles...so there is no reason to assume that firing tests would have "destroyed'' the carrier aircraft.

The Gerat 104 projectile weighed 1,400 lbs and the weapon was to be extended form the belly of the carrier aircraft while it dove at an angle of 60 to 80 degrees. Like the UFO Interceptor it would have been a single-shot weapons system...not too logical.

The SG 113 was a variation on the principle that used a simple tube barrel assembly and a specialized cartridge that consisted of an AP projectile connected by a pre-weakened rod to the counterweight...the space between the projectile and weight was filled with the propellant charge.
When the propellant was ignited the overpressure would break the connecting rod sending the projectile down and driving the weight ou the top of the tube.

I'll post illustrations later.

The Tupolev ANT-23(1-12), ANT-31(1-14) and ANT-46(DI-8) were all built to utilise APK series Davis-gun type recoilless weapons.

Cheers, Jon

[Runway ? ...]

Blankety heck I'm annoyed at me, I know I've got a pic of a smallish one on a flexible mount somewhere but never mind. Wikipedia says it was trialled on an O/100 (ok it may be an interweb truth). Also these guys seem to think it'd be a reasonable idea on an OV10. It's a safe bet that if you could use one hand held or fitted to a Jeep you could use one in the air. It just depends on how big you want it to be. I just wish I could find my original reference.

[jcf]

Here's a page on the Davis gun:
Davis Gun

Cheers, Jon

[ysi_maniac]

Blankety heck I'm annoyed at me, I know I've got a pic of a smallish one on a flexible mount somewhere but never mind. Wikipedia says it was trialled on an O/100 (ok it may be an interweb truth). Also these guys seem to think it'd be a reasonable idea on an OV10. It's a safe bet that if you could use one hand held or fitted to a Jeep you could use one in the air. It just depends on how big you want it to be. I just wish I could find my original reference.

The drawing in first page looks sensible. I will read the entire article when I had time.
Thanks  

[ysi_maniac]

Here's a page on the Davis gun:
Davis Gun

Cheers, Jon

Thanks a lot  

[jcf]

Gerat 104


SG 113


ANT-23


ANT-31


ANT-46


The ANT images are from the Virtual Aircraft Museum site;
Virtual Aircraft Museum

Cheers, Jon

[anthonyp]

Be interesting to mount one in an A-10 though  

Funny you should mention that...  I've got an old Matchbox A-10 (with the mini muzzle) that I was going to modify a bit to have a recoiless rifle in place of the GAU-8.

[Son of Damian]

During WW2 the Italians put a 107mm gun in the nose of a modified Piaggio P.108 four engine bomber, and created the A version (A for artillery).

The Russians experimented with useing the TB-3 as a bomber destroyer by puting a 105mm gun in each wing.