Junkers 87 D-3 3.7cm cannons

[C130]

I just saw this interesting video of a WW2 Ju 87 with two 3.7CM cannons. seems pretty accurate and devastating.

Super Tucano with a similar cannon would own. anti-personal anti-vehicle, and cheap.

 

[MastanKhan]

Hi,

That was an awesome shootout by a ww2 aircraft----as you mentioned----it could do wonders even in this day and age.

 

[GR!FF!N]

I just saw this interesting video of a WW2 Ju 87 with two 3.7CM cannons. seems pretty accurate and devastating.

Super Tucano with a similar cannon would own. anti-personal anti-vehicle, and cheap.

Super Tunaco uses GIAT 20 mm,enough as a gun,along with M3P and HMP.

 

[airmarshal]

@C130 by the time Stuka was fitted with these guns, it was already obsolete as it was slow and not manoeuvable and easily preyed on by more advanced fighters.

But Germans found a new role for this great aircraft and its dive bombing capabilities were used to target tanks with astonishing accuracy. This is a tribute to German engineering but more to their ingenuity.

This plane Ju-87G (was actually Ju-87D) with Bordkanone was an inspiration of current A-10 thunderbolt. The engineers who conceived A-10 had Stuka in mind and interviewed Stuka pilots in early 70s regarding this plane and their tank busting strategies.

 

[C130]

Super Tunaco uses GIAT 20 mm,enough as a gun,along with M3P and HMP.

20x102 vs 37x263

20x102 is weak in comparison, i'm talking about arming it with a super cannon.


the closet cannon I can think of that's possible right now would be 40mm bofors


or even BK 27 would be better

 

[GR!FF!N]

20x102 vs 37x263

20x102 is weak in comparison, i'm talking about arming it with a super cannon.


the closet cannon I can think of that's possible right now would be 40mm bofors


or even BK 27 would be better

what you've missed that in this age, Light Attack Aircrafts like Super Tunaco is better off with these...

LAU-68

or

SBAT-70

or similar rockets...

Air-Launched 2.75-Inch Rockets

Super Tunaco carries 4X Rocket Pods..does it need a "Cannon"??For Soft Armour or Personnel or such,it has Guns,for Armour,it has these rockets or other payloads.I remember IAF used similar(older Gen) rockets against PA MBTs with devastating effect.So,you can clearly assume why they doesn't have bigger cannons.One of the another reasons is these large caliber gun's recoil reduces life of the airframe.

 

[C130]

what you've missed that in this age, Light Attack Aircrafts like Super Tunaco is better off with these...

LAU-68

or

SBAT-70

or similar rockets...

Air-Launched 2.75-Inch Rockets

Super Tunaco carries 4X Rocket Pods..does it need a "Cannon"??For Soft Armour or Personnel or such,it has Guns,for Armour,it has these rockets or other payloads.I remember IAF used similar(older Gen) rockets against PA MBTs with devastating effect.So,you can clearly assume why they doesn't have bigger cannons.One of the another reasons is these large caliber gun's recoil reduces life of the airframe.

super cannon is still cheaper. rockets are good though, especially CRV7 and more versatile with it's payload

CRV7 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The weapon was originally quoted to have a dispersion of 4 milliradians, but testing with the CF-18 Hornet demonstrated it was even lower, at 3 milliradians.[4] This is considerably better than the autocannon that arm most aircraft; the widely used M61 Vulcan is rated at 8 milliradians, while the much larger and considerably heavierGAU-8 is rated at 5 milliradians

 

[Penguin]

@C130 by the time Stuka was fitted with these guns, it was already obsolete as it was slow and not manoeuvable and easily preyed on by more advanced fighters.

But Germans found a new role for this great aircraft and its dive bombing capabilities were used to target tanks with astonishing accuracy. This is a tribute to German engineering but more to their ingenuity.

This plane Ju-87G (was actually Ju-87D) with Bordkanone was an inspiration of current A-10 thunderbolt. The engineers who conceived A-10 had Stuka in mind and interviewed Stuka pilots in early 70s regarding this plane and their tank busting strategies.

If you think that 37mm inspired something, check out the Henschel 129 with 75mm cannon

There was also the Ju-88P1 tank buster. Like Henschel 129, also available in twin 37mm variant

A Me262 tank buster with 50mm cannon

The USAF had a B-25 Mitchell variant with 8 forward 0.50 HMGs and 75mm cannon (for anti shipping)

 

[Penguin]

The Brits employed the Hurricane with 2x 40mm for tankbusting.

Russia had the Il-2m Sturmovik with the NS-37 cannon in conformal gun pods beneath the wings

 

[airmarshal]

If you think that 37mm inspired something, check out the Henschel 129 with 75mm cannon

Its not that 'I think', it was stated in Discovery documentary on A-10. The rest you have mentioned were not specific tank killers.

 

[Penguin]

Its not that 'I think', it was stated in Discovery documentary on A-10. The rest you have mentioned were not specific tank killers.

Any WW2 aircraft mounting former AAA cannon over 30mm is intended as specific tank and/or bomber killer.
The Germans lumped all of these together under the heading "schlachtflugzeuge", 'Erdkampfflugzeug', or 'Bodenkampfflugzeug'
Erdkampfflugzeug – Wikipedia

More so than the Stuka Ju-87, the Henschel 129 was designed to withstand the main source(s) of damage namely small arms fire from the ground, meaning that the plane had to be well-armored around its cockpit and engines. Similar protection was also needed in the canopy, in the form of 75 mm (2.95 in) thick armored glass. The Hs 129 was designed around a single large "bathtub" of steel sheeting that made up the entire nose area of the plane, completely enclosing the pilot up to head level. Even the canopy was steel, with only tiny windows on the side to see out of and two angled blocks of glass for the windscreen. In order to improve the armor's ability to deflect bullets, the fuselage sides were angled in forming a triangular shape, resulting in almost no room to move at shoulder level.
Henschel Hs 129 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That much more closely resembles the A-10 than the Ju-87, which is essentially a re-roled divebomber, much in the same way that RAF reroled older Hurricanes to tankbusting by equipping them with 2x 40mm cannon underwing. In fact, I think it - the He 129 - is one of the very few purpose designed groundattack/tankbusting aircraft. The Il-2 Sturmovik being one of the main others.

The Ju-88P series and the B-25 are medium bombers re-roled for ground attack (ship attack also, in case of B-25J).

Incidentally, the B-26 Marauder also had a dedicated (if experimental) ground attack version.

The Vickers Class "S" 40 mm (1.57 in) gun was developed in the late 1930s as an aircraft weapon. The ammunition was based on the 40x158R cartridge case of the naval 2 pdr Anti-aircraft gun (the "Pom-pom"). The weapon was a long-recoil design derived from the 37 mm 1½pdr "COW gun" from Coventry Ordnance Works.The gun was originally intended as a bomber defensive weapon and was tested as such in a turret fitted to a modified Vickers Wellington II. This was not adopted for service, but when the need to attack tanks from the air was identified, the "S" gun was chosen and special armour-piercing ammunition developed

Vickers S - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bordkanone BK 3,7 ((on-)board cannon 37) was a 37mm anti-tank/bomber autocannon based on the earlier 37 mm Flak 18 made by Rheinmetall. It was mounted on World War II Luftwaffe aircraft such as the anti-tank or bomber-destroyer versions of the Junkers Ju 87D-3 and G-2, Henschel Hs 129B-2/R3,[citation needed] Messerschmitt Bf 110G-2/R1-3, and others. The cannon could be attached under the wings or fuselage of the aircraft as a self-contained gun pod with a 12-round magazine. It fired APCR (Tungsten hard core) ammunition or high explosive shells in 37x263B mm caliber at 160 rounds per minute.

BK-37 equipped ground attack aircraft were developed for use in the anti-tank role on the Eastern Front in a somewhat desperate effort to blunt the massive numerical superiority of the Soviet T-34 as the war turned against Germany.

BK 37 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The German 50mm and both the German and US 75mm aircraft cannon derive from tank guns.
75 mm Gun M2/M3/M6 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Me-410 with 50mm BK.

I will grant you that Me-410 and Me262 with 50mm cannon were intended as bomber killers, not tank killers.

JU-88P: Anti-tank and bomber destroyer variant with single Bordkanone series 75 mm (2.95 in), 50 mm (1.97 in), or twin 37 mm (1.46 in) calibre cannon in conformal ventral fuselage gun pod mount, which mandated removal of the Bola gondola under the cockpit section, conversion of A-series bomber. Produced in small series only, they were perceived as a failure for both anti-tank and anti-bomber use.

Hurricane Mk IID 'Flying can openers'.

 

[airmarshal]

Not disputing you @Penguin

Watch at 7:05 onward

Stuka was inspiration because it was deployed in larger numbers and its dive bombing capability rendered its powerful gun effective. Hs-129s were produced in smaller numbers.

Me-262 too was attached with that powerful gun but it was not as successful.

Germans had extremely innovative and technological advanced ideas.

And you talk about tankbusting and not refer to Hans Rudel will be utter ignorance

It was him who was consulted by A-10 developers as link below proves

American Warplane’s Forgotten Nazi Past - The Daily Beast

 

[Penguin]

On the consultation of Hans-Ulrich Rudel for the A-10:

In 1969, the Secretary of the Air Force asked Pierre Sprey to write the detailed specifications for the proposed A-X project; Sprey required that the biography of World War II Luftwaffe attack pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel be read by people on the A-X program.

Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The difference between Ju-87 Stuka and Henschel Hs-129 (865 built) is that the former is a rearmed version of a dive bomber (first emerging in 1942, with the first Stuka dating back to 1935/36) while the latter is a purpose designed ground attack aircraft (B-1s started rolling off the lines in December 1941), which as such shares far more feature with the A-10 then the Stuka does. The main problem with the Hs-129 was that it had to make do with inferior engines of insufficient power.

With the G variant, the aging airframe of the Ju 87 found new life as an anti-tank aircraft. The reverse in German military fortunes after 1943 and the appearance of huge numbers of well-armoured Soviet tanks caused Junkers to adapt the existing design to combat this new threat. The Hs 129B had proved a potent ground attack weapon, but its large fuel tanks made it vulnerable to enemy fire, prompting the RLM to say "that in the shortest possible time a replacement of the Hs 129 type must take place." With Soviet tanks the priority targets, the development of a further variant as a successor to the Ju 87D began in November 1942.
Hans-Ulrich Rudel, a Stuka ace, had suggested using two 37 mm (1.46 in) Flak 18 guns, each one in a self-contained under-wing gun pod, as the Bordkanone BK 3,7, after achieving success against Soviet tanks with the 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon. These gun pods were fitted to a Ju 87 D-1, W.Nr 2552 as "Gustav the tank killer". The first flight of the machine took place on 31 January 1943, piloted by Hauptmann Hans-Karl Stepp.
The continuing problems with about two dozens of the Ju 88P-1, and slow development of the Hs 129 B-3, each of them equipped with a large, PaK 40-based, autoloading Bordkanone BK 7,5 cm (2.95 in) cannon in a conformal gun pod beneath the fuselage, meant the Ju 87G was put into production. In April 1943, the first production Ju 87 G-1s were delivered to front line units. The two 37 mm (1.46 in) cannons were mounted in under-wing gun pods, each loaded with two six-round magazines of armour-piercing tungsten carbide-cored ammunition. With these weapons, the Kanonenvogel ("cannon-bird"), as it was nicknamed, proved spectacularly successful in the hands of Stuka aces such as Rudel. The G-1 was converted from older D-series airframes, retaining the smaller wing, but without the dive brakes. The G-2 was similar to the G-1 except for use of the extended wing of the D-5. 208 G-2s were built and at least a further 22 more were converted from D-3 airframes. Only a handful of production Gs were committed in the Battle of Kursk. On the opening day of the offensive, Hans-Ulrich Rudel flew the only "official" Ju 87 G, although a significant number of Ju 87D variants were fitted with the 37 mm (1.46 in) cannon, and operated as unofficial Ju 87 Gs before the battle.
The G-1 later influenced the design of the A-10 Thunderbolt II, with Hans Rudel's book, Stuka Pilot being required reading for all members of the A-X project.[73]

Junkers Ju 87 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Instead of diving like normal Stukas, they make sweeping attacks like normal fighter-bombers.

Ju-87G - R.U.S.E. Wiki

Production Ju 87D-3s were converted to G-1s on site by the troops. For this conversion, the cannon-housing containers could be easily removed and replaced with standard bomb racks. None of the aircraft had dive flaps, but the brackets to fit them remained. A total of about 40 machines were converted in this fashion.The Ju 87 G-1 differs from its later counterpart, the Ju 87 G-2 in that it utilizes the earlier D models such as the Ju 87 D-3. The G-2 model uses the later Ju 87D-5 model

Ju 87G-1 - WarThunder-Wiki

Number built: 6,500 all Variants

Variants:

Ju 87A

• Ju 87 V-1
• Ju 87 V-2
• Ju 87 V-3
• Ju 87 V-4
• Ju 87 V-5
• Ju 87A
• Ju 87 A-0
• Ju 87 A-1
• Ju 87 A-2

Ju 87B

• Ju 87 V-6
• Ju 87 V-7
• Ju 87 V-8
• Ju 87 V-9
• Ju 87 V-15
• Ju 87 V-16
• Ju 87 V-17
• Ju 87 V-18
• Ju 87B
• Ju 87 B-0
• Ju 87 B-1
• Ju 87 B-2
• Ju 87 B-2/Trop

Ju 87Chttps://defence.pk/junkers-ju-87-d-bomber.htm

• Ju 87 V-10
• Ju 87 V-11
• Ju 87C
• Ju 87 C-0
• Ju 87 C-1

Ju 87D

• Ju 87 V-21
• Ju 87 V-22
• Ju 87 V-23
• Ju 87 V-24
• Ju 87 V-25
• Ju 87 V-26
• Ju 87 V-28
• Ju 87 V-30
• Ju 87 V-31
• Ju 87 V-42
• Ju 87 V-47
• Ju 87D
• Ju 87 D-1
• Ju 87 D-1/Trop
• Ju 87 D-2
• Ju 87 D-3
• Ju 87 D-4
• Ju 87 D-5
• Ju 87 D-6
• Ju 87 D-7
• Ju 87 D-8

Ju 87G

• Ju 87 G-0
• Ju 87 G-1
• Ju 87 G-2

Ju 87H

• Ju 87 H-1
• Ju 87 H-3
• Ju 87 H-5
• Ju 87 H-7
• Ju 87 H-8

Ju 87R

• Ju 87 R-1
• Ju 87 R-2
• Ju 87 R-3
• Ju 87 R-4

Junkers Ju 87G Stuka Dive Bomber

The G-series is relatively small, proportionally to total Ju-87 production.

 

[PakArmyFTW]

Late war the Germans started putting some real heavy *** guns on their planes. Henchel Hs 129 B-3s to defeat the increasingly heavily armored Soviet tanks and 50mm guns on the Me 410 to combat the huge bomber formations. I can't find the picture but it showed a B-17 which was hit by a 50mm round and the right horizontal stabilizer had a huge chunk blown out off it. Just insane.

 

[C130]

Late war the Germans started putting some real heavy *** guns on their planes. Henchel Hs 129 B-3s to defeat the increasingly heavily armored Soviet tanks and 50mm guns on the Me 410 to combat the huge bomber formations. I can't find the picture but it showed a B-17 which was hit by a 50mm round and the right horizontal stabilizer had a huge chunk blown out off it. Just insane.

MK 108 cannon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
think you are talking about the scaled up Mk 108 the Mk 112??

the mine-shell for the Mk-108 was designed to destroy fighters and bombers with one hit.