But yes, most 20mm-armed planes also have very limited ammo capacities, so you end up getting much closer than you otherwise would if using 6 or 8 .50cals.
Earlier I played a match in the 109 E-7 and I also needed several hits from 20mm wing guns to get the desired “wings snapping off” result. Most of the time they hit and did damage but my enemy somehow did not spontaneously combust.
Considering the largest plume lines up. I’m %99 sure this is what M1 had the capacity of doing inside a plane.
The bullet realistically should also detonate striking something hard. Similarly there is some effect with the gas tank.
Funny part is. The large plume is actually somehwat similar in size to the plumes we see in gun-cam footage (Not counting the plume that’s inside the aircraft), and going by the DTIC document, there should be at least some TNT equivalency to the rounds, especially if 4-5 rounds hit on thin airframes Don’t forget that there is a spacer as well and you can see it quickly spread.
What you posted before was definitely from a He 111 fuel tank replica set-up.
Even though I would imagine they would shoot them with .50cals, whats odd in the image you posted was that the round you showed only detonated on the third dural plate.
But they probably also shot them with 20mm rounds.
Nevermind, you are actually right.
But remember it’s just a short flash of fire.
It definitely has some blast power and can ignite fuel from fuel leaks and could cause more catastrophic damage under the right circumstances.
the thread exists because currently in game the US .50 incendiary rounds do not preform anywhere remotely like they do irl causing US 0.50s to be much less consistent than other aircraft guns relying on pilot snipe or other lucky shots
The incendiary rounds don’t perform like real life but API also doesn’t. Except that API overperforming makes completely up for Incendiary underperforming.
API can fly through the entire air frame and set fuel or engines on fire.
And wings getting cut off happens a lot more frequently too, since spars have such a basic damage model.
Likewise AP can penetrate armor it couldn’t in real life because there’s no bullet tumbling and plane armor isn’t made from high hardness armor in WT.
That’s actually not why the US planes had their compression nerfed, they were nerfed because it’s realistic. The key thing is that there is A LOT more data on US props than most other props in existence, so the finite limits of the aircraft are known. Other nations’ props have less data on them (generally), so they can’t be nerfed as easily. Even when there is data Gaijin sometimes chooses to ignore it (Japanese planes not compressing at high speeds despite data saying they should, the bug report is like 7 years old at this point).
It’s also kind of weird that it seems like you’re defending the .50 cal’s position in game when you’ve pointed out that they do worse damage overall, do less consistent damage overall, and are on airframes that are more heavily restricted. All for what? They’re slightly easier to aim, but have to be much more precise in their shots to do anything?
That’s what it’s supposed to do, except the setting the fire part is inconsistent.
More consistent as compared to what? Pure ball .50 cal ammo? Anything with HE filler is much, much better at cutting off wings.
Why is ok for .50 cals to have to hit very specific modules, but it’s ok for HE filler aircraft to be able to hit anything and win (if they aren’t unlucky)?
The vast majority of the time, 2x 12.7mms with HE will do more damage than 8x .50 cals will with only incendiary - let alone 20mm cannons or higher.
Because you at least 3x as many chances to hit as with a pair of 20mms, and with Brownings if one round hits a place you are probably hitting the same place with at least one more due to RoF and velocity
This is just flat out factually incorrect. But you wouldn’t know since you havent actually FLOWN a plane with .50 HEF rounds.
The tanks were self-sealing fuel tanks, and were designed via the exact specification from captured british design plans
My point was not to show that M1 is a wonder weapon. But that there is considerable damage that can take place. Especially when late-war belts consist of M23, and that had over double the filler and it was more reactive.
But the thing is. API in-game doesn’t do structural damage. unless you get lucky with spars or you hit convergence. and have all your rounds hit on a specific segment.
Back to Japanese .50s
I Purposely aimed for the wings. Not even a BURST of Japanese .50s hit his wing and instantly I obliterated his wing. I slowed down and even counted.
A P-51C. Again, he wasn’t damaged at all. AND STILL! I blew his wing off with literally only 2 rounds!
Funny part is? The enemy team actually climbed and met with the Bf-109s and Yaks at Co-altitudes. But then the fights all went low. I was hit by a P-63’s .50s but again. I just shrugged it off.
Most aircraft with 20mms have four, not two, and most 20mms (really all) will do much more than 3x the damage of a .50 cal bullet.
Except I’ve flown against planes with them, and they consistently do more damage to me or to other players around me than I do to them (unless I get a pilot snipe, but they can also do that).
I struck his left wing once, his elevator once, and then I swap to the other side and hit him and blew his wing off with a basically no burst to that area. Funny part too. Since it’s just two guns. You can actually count my rounds firing off with the video. just hit pause and go by the , and . keys and you can go frame by frame.
I counted at least 6 hits before his wing came off.
Your burst was much longer than most of the bursts I fired in any of my .50 cal clips
That one was a one shot. Congratulations, you got lucky. Now do it as consistently as you claim they can do it.
Most 20mm planes have two. Stop looking at just the few US planes where they only replaced the MGs with quad cannons. Almost every other nation has most of their planes running a mix of 1-2 20mms and 2-4 MGs. Some Russian planes have just two cannons or sometimes maybe 3 cannons.
This doesnt matter. You dont see their perspective, you dont see their hits before the one that kills you, or misses, or ballistics, or their ammo count.
Simply dying to them does nothing to show you how they actually perform in general use.
The only way to see for yourself is to actually PLAY it yourself. Look at Dovah here, he is at least trying it out.