- Yes
- No
- As part of a Hungarian Aviation subtree for Italy
- As a researchable vehicle as a part of some other research tree
- As a premium/event/battle pass aircraft
- I don’t want it to be added to War Thunder
You often hear about aircraft from major nations, rarely do you hear about aircraft from minor nations. Even then, it is likely another Swedish or Dutch aircraft, so it is a welcome surprise to hear about a Hungarian aircraft – after all, Hungary is better known for their tanks. However this doesn’t mean they didn’t design impressive aircraft.
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The Weiss Manfréd WM-23 Ezüst Nyíl 
(First/top) An image of the WM-23 from another flight simulator: X-Plane 11. I chose this image because it shows the WM-23 off the best and clearest. Credits to HPM and Alex_Delgado . (Second) Schematic drawing of the WM-23. Credit to XM111 . (Third) Apparently a real surviving image of the WM-23. (Fourth/bottom) The War Thunder statcard I made for the WM-23.
Brief Description:
The WM-23 is a single seat, single engine monoplane fighter aircraft. It had slightly inverted gull wings and an elliptical wing shape, so like an F4U Corsair’s wing crossed with a Spitfire’s wing. It was powered by an air cooled radial engine, had a closed canopy and retractable landing gear and Fowler flaps on the wings. It had a three-bladed variable-pitch (I don’t know whether it was constant speed as well) propeller. It had 4 Hungarian machine guns; 2 × 12.7 mms and 2 × 8 mms. These had very high fire rates and the 12.7 mms could fire explosive filled ammunition.
The WM-23 was developed, manufactured and tested from summer 1939 to April 1942. It was a modern fighter design and was intended to be Hungary’s main fighter. One fully complete prototype was produced and test flown numerous times. The aircraft performed quite well and was planned to enter mass production, however it was never quite ready for this as the aircraft suffered from a high speed vibration problem which the engineers tried in vain to find and fix. On 21 April 1942, the sole prototype was destroyed after the right aileron was torn off due to intense vibrations the aircraft experienced whilst flying at top speed. The aircraft became uncontrollable and crashed. The pilot bailed out and survived. After this, it was decided to cancel the project; the prototype was destroyed, Hungary was using the Héja to fill the role of the WM-23 by this time and the production of the Bf 109 in Hungary was in sight. I just want it to be clear that this project was not cancelled because the Hungarians didn’t want the aircraft or it was an unfeasible idea or anything. The Hungarians were interested in this aircraft and fully intended to mass produce and use this aircraft, but because the engineers took so long testing and trying to fix the vibration problems before declaring the aircraft as ready, the Héja fighter was already in use and it had similar performance to the WM-23, although I still believe the WM-23 was better. Therefore from an economic standpoint, it was decided the reward was not worth the further investment the project required, so it was unfortunately cancelled. However, since it meets all of the requirements of an aircraft in War Thunder such as having a completed prototype, there is no reason that it should not be allowed to live on within War Thunder!
Why should we want this aircraft? Why this instead of others?
What sets this aircraft apart from other Hungarian aircraft? Firstly, it is an entirely Hungarian design, unlike the MÁVAG Héja I and II which are only in part Hungarian as they were based on an Italian fighter. Also, unlike other entirely Hungarian fighter designs that could be considered such as the RMI-1 and RMI-8, the WM-23 was not only completed, but flown several times too and was intended to be mass produced as the primary Hungarian fighter of WW2! So why wasn’t it? Simply due to the fact that it was in development and testing for too long (due to a vibration problem that proved impossible to find and fix), so Hungary had already started using the roughly equivalent Héja fighter and thus the WM-23 project was no longer needed. Had the engineers been able to find the vibration problems sooner and fully solve them, the WM-23 could have gone into production before the MÁVAG Héja, and maybe the Héja wouldn’t have been needed.
So why add this aircraft to War Thunder instead of other aircraft from major nations? We already have hundreds if not thousands of aircraft from major nations, so they are all well represented, and the most interesting/real designs are already in game, the ones that haven’t been added are too weird and do n’t fit in War Thunder or are just more sub versions of aircraft in game. It seems a little forced to keep on adding these, and it has the unintended side effect of obscuring and delaying the addition of more interesting, unique, viable and forgotten aircraft from other nations. Ask yourself why you have heard of the XP-50, R2Y2, J6K1, Bf 109Z, Ho 229, and the F-16AJ but not the WM-23, when the WM-23 was actually completed, flown, tested and intended for mass production, unlike all of the former aircraft.
So why add the WM-23 to War Thunder instead of other aircraft from minor nations? Firstly, War Thunder already has Dutch, Finnish, Australian and a Romanian aircraft, whereas there are currently no Hungarian designed aircraft in the game. Secondly, proposals for aircraft from other minor nations are usually for major nations’ aircraft that have been modified by a minor nation, rather than a fully indigenous design. The indigenous designs that are submitted are sometimes proposals, incomplete designs or abandoned prototype projects with no intention of production, whereas the WM-23 was a completely indigenous, fully completed and tested design which came very close to seeing mass production and service. The WM-23 was also regarded as an impressive design at the time; especially considering Hungary’s less than ideal interwar situation (not being allowed to have or design any military aircraft), and limited industrial capacity (again due to punishments from WW1). Adding the WM-23 would give this almost completely forgotten aircraft another chance not to be forgotten and for its design to live on. It would also show people some Hungarian aeronautical engineering and help represent a more significant member of the ‘minor nations’.
Can I see the specifications?
Yes you can, here are the specifications: (They primarily use the first three sources listed in the sources section at the bottom of my post, with some characteristics coming from sources further down in my list)
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Length: 9.12 m (29 ft 11 in)
- Wingspan: 9.6 m (31 ft 6 in)
- Height: 3.3 m (10 ft 10 in)
- Wing area: 18.5 m2 (199 sq ft)
- Airfoil: root: NACA 23018; tip: NACA 23009
- Empty weight: 2,200 kg (4,850 lb)
- Gross weight: 2,600 kg (5,732 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 3,290 kg (7,253 lb)
- Fuel capacity: at least 300 kg (660 lb)
- Powerplant: 1 × Weiss Manfréd WM K-14B 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial piston engine, 768 kW (1,030 hp)
- Propeller: 3-bladed variable-pitch propeller (I assume made of metal)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 530 km/h (330 mph, 290 kn)
- Cruise speed: 472 km/h (293 mph, 255 kn)
- Range: 600 km (370 mi, 320 nmi)
- Service ceiling: 9,600 m (31,500 ft)
- Rate of climb: 16.7 m/s (3,290 ft/min) (calculated from 1000 m/min)
- Time to altitude: 6,000 m (20,000 ft) in 6 minutes
- Wing loading: 140 kg/m2 (29 lb/sq ft)
- Power/mass: 0.295 kW/kg (0.179 hp/lb)
- Take-off run: 250 m (820 ft)
Armament
- Guns:
- 2 × 12.7 mm (.50 in) synchronized Gebauer 1940.M GKM machine guns in the upper cowling, likely with 300 rpg [note: The 2 × 12.7 mm guns might have been replaced later on during development by 2 × 20 mm (.78 in) synchronized Mauser MG 151/20 cannons in the upper cowling. I found many, though less reliable sources saying this.]
- 2 × 8 mm (.31 in) Gebauer 1939.M machine guns in the wings, likely with 500 or 600 rpg
- Bombs: 20 kg (44 lb) bomb(s) (likely 1 or 2 from what I found)
Avionics : R-13 radio
A note on the reliability/accuracy of the specifications:
Please bear in mind that I pieced these specifications together from various sources, with some of the less reliable ones conflicting each other, however most of this information was agreed upon by all reliable sources and most of the less reliable ones. The dimensions, wing area, weights, powerplant, propeller, maximum speed, range and armament are almost certainly correct and the few conflicting sources were less reliable ones and only differed by very small margins. The airfoil, fuel capacity and takeoff run were only mentioned in one source, although this was the most detailed and reliable one. The parameters I am most unsure of are the service ceiling, climb rates and bombs. The Service ceiling is said to be 9000 m in many less reliable sources and 9600 m in one far more reliable source. In some sources, it is said the WM-23 would have two bombs, however in the most reliable source, all mention of bombs are said as “20 kg bomb”, whilst this implies one bomb, it doesn’t rule out multiple 20 kg bombs, however the bombs are an irrelevant part of this fighter and are too small for significant use in game. The climb rate wasn’t mentioned in the more reliable sources so I gathered these from the most reliable of the less reliable sources. Some sources stated this to be 1000 m per minute, others stated it as 6 minutes to 6000 m (as time to altitude). No source stated 16.7 m/s, I just calculated this from 1000 m/min. My best guess is that the climb rate is actually far higher than 16.7 m/s as I think it was originally recorded as 6 minutes to 6000 m (as time to altitude), then other sources who didn’t understand the difference between time to altitude and climb rate may have decided to just wrongly simplify this to 1000 m/min, from which I calculated 16.7 m/s. But considering time to altitude times the takeoff and the climb at a changing altitude where climb rate changes, the climb rate may be higher than 19 m/s. For example a climb rate of 20 m/s doesn’t mean a time to altitude of 3600 m in 3 minutes, it would likely take 4 minutes as the aircraft needs to accelerate, take off, and its climb rate changes as it climbs. Wing loading and Power/mass were calculated from gross weight, wing area and engine power. A full list of the sources I used and a useful note can be found at the bottom of this post.
What are the machine guns on the WM-23 like?
Considering the WM-23 used Hungarian machine guns that aren’t in the game yet, I will include some more information about the WM-23’s armament so you can imagine the firepower of the aircraft:
The WM-23 prototype did not have guns or bombs installed in order to test fly the aircraft as soon as possible, however the planned armament consisted of 2 × 12.7 mm Gebauer 1940.M GKM machine guns in the upper cowling (in front of the pilot) and 2 × 8 mm Gebauer 1939.M machine guns in the wings. The two 12.7 mm machine guns in the upper cowling might have been replaced by two 20 mm Mauser MG 151/20 cannons later on during development as some, though less reliable, sources claim so. However the more reliable sources don’t mention MG 151s at all. The WM-23 would have most likely had 300 rounds per gun (rpg) for the 12.7 mm guns and 500 or 600 rpg for the 8 mm guns. Whilst the WM-23 was designed as a fighter, and this would be its primary role, it was planned to carry 20 kg bomb(s) (I’m not certain of the exact number, though I think it is 1 or 2) making it capable of performing ground attack roles, even if only to a limited extent. I think the purpose of these bombs would have been for killing infantry or destroying trucks and AAA positions instead of destroying heavily armoured tanks or pillboxes.
Some details on the Hungarian Gebauer machine guns:
The Gebauer machine guns are very complicated but advanced Hungarian machine guns. They are vehicle mounted, gas-operated and usually have very high rates of fire. Many Gebauer machine guns are engine-driven; the crankshaft of the aircraft’s engine rotates a number of gears inside the machine gun with the assistance of a crank. The bolt is connected to another crankshaft, which rotates when a locking lever is depressed when the gun fires. All of the Gebauer machine guns were designed by Ferenc Gebauer and manufactured by Danuvia Engineering Industries Rt.
The 12.7 mm Gebauer 1940.M GKM is a gas-operated, engine-driven heavy machine gun chambered for 12.7×81mmSR (as used by the Italian 12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT). Synchronised with the propeller, it is installed in pairs in the upper cowling (in front of the pilot) and is driven by the crankshaft of the engine. The guns had a high rate of fire of 1,000 rounds per minute each, but this may have been as high as 1,300 rpm according to one source. The 12.7 mm 1940.M GKM has a muzzle velocity of 800 m/s and is belt fed with 600 rounds for the two guns, giving it 300 rounds per gun (rpg). Since the Hungarian MÁVAG Héja II had two of these guns in the cowling with 300 rpg, the WM-23 would likely also have had 300 rpg for its 12.7 mm machine guns.
Spoiler
Images from top to bottom: a 12.7 mm Gebauer 1940.M GKM, cross section diagrams of the different ammunition it uses, a diagram of the gun’s insides, a picture of a pair of 1940.M GKMs installed in the cowling. Rough translation of the second image from left to right: tracer (round), armour-piercing (round) with phosphorus, ‘light’ tracer (night tracer round?), incendiary (round), high explosive/fragmentation structured (round), (round) without high explosive/fragmentation structure, blank (round).
The 8 mm Gebauer 1939.M is a wing mounted, gas-operated machine gun chambered for 8×56mmR. It has a very high rate of fire of 2000 rounds per minute and a muzzle velocity of 730 m/s (the muzzle velocity seems to be an estimate that came about later as not many guns and documents survive today, but again I’m not certain ). The rate of fire for this gun reached as high as 2038 rpm during testing. It is fed by a 500 round belt, giving it 500 rounds per gun, however according to a different source, it could use a 600 round belt (giving it 600 rpg). The WM-23 would have likely had 500 or 600 rounds per gun for its 8 mm guns.
Spoiler
Images from top left to top right to middle and then to bottom: an 8 mm Gebauer 1939.M, a cross section diagram of the ammunition it uses, a diagram of the gun’s insides, a picture of the ammunition belt.
How these Hungarian machine guns would perform in War Thunder:
The Hungarian 8 mm machine gun has a higher rate of fire than the Soviet 7.62 mm Shkas, making the Hungarian 8 mm the fastest firing WW2 gun in the game, only being beaten by advanced modern guns like the A-10’s GAU-8 or the Mig-27’s minigun, and even these are multi-barreled rotary miniguns unlike the single barrelled Hungarian 8 mm. It would likely deal the same damage as other rifle calibre machine guns, but probably be more on the punchy end rather than the weaker end, as it is the highest calibre of the rifle calibre machine guns. For example, it could deal the same damage as the German 7.92 mm MG 17.
The Hungarian 12.7 mm machine gun was chambered for the same rounds as the Italian Breda-SAFAT 12.7 mm MG, so one option would be to just give it the same belts and ammunition as the Breda-SAFAT. However, I did find a reliable Hungarian journal source which included the ammunition for these Hungarian machine guns and it showed that the 12.7 mm could shoot explosive-filled rounds, making it as punchy in War Thunder as the 12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT, Ho-103 or the Swedish 13.2 mms and far more destructive than the M2/M3 Brownings, 13 mm MG 131 or other 12.7 mm machine guns which don’t have explosive fillers. The rate of fire of this Hungarian 12.7 mm seems to be 1000 rounds per minute, making it fire as fast as the Soviet 12.7 mm Berezin UB, which also has a rate of fire of 1000 rpm.
Information about the design:
In mid 1939, possibly due to Hungary’s He 112B contract having difficulties (such as deliberate delays and prevention of licensing by the Germans), the Hungarians decided to produce their own fighter design. The new aircraft was to have performance similar to (or better than) modern fighter aircraft of other nations at the time such as the Curtiss P-36, Seversky P-35, Hawker Hurricane, Polikarpov I-16, Heinkel He 112, and the contemporary versions of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 (which was the D variant in 1939). The aircraft received the designation WM-23 and was designed by the Hungarian company Weiss Manfréd.
The design of the WM-23 began in the summer of 1939 and it was designed by Samu Béla with Marton Vilmos, Milcsevics Tibor, Pap Márton, Pavláth Jeno and others. The prototype was completed by the end of 1940. The WM-23 was powered by a 14-cylinder, two-row, air-cooled 1,030 hp (768 kW) radial engine – the Weiss Manfréd WM K-14B. The WM K-14B was a licensed, modified version of the Gnome-Rhône 14Kfrs Mistral-Major radial engine. The WM-23 had a close-fitting NACA-type cowling around the engine, which would drive a three-bladed variable-pitch metal VDM (some sources say Hamilton-Standard) propeller. Efficient cooling of the engine was done by the use of cowl flaps; these could be opened or closed by the pilot using manual controls. The aircraft’s canopy was rearward-sliding and the view from the cockpit was very good. An R-13 radio device, for a 24 V network, with a long antenna was to be installed, although it was not installed on the prototype so the aircraft could be tested and flown sooner.
The WM-23 had wooden, plywood skinned wings with Fowler flaps. The wings had a subtle inverted-gull wing shape when viewed from the front, and an elliptical shape when viewed from above. According to the calculations made by the engineers, this design not only made the wings robust, but also greatly improved the aircraft’s flight performance and controllability. The aircraft’s manoeuvrability also promised to be excellent. At the wing root, the chord length was 2.5 m long and the airfoil was a NACA 23018 which transitioned to a NACA 23012 main airfoil until the end of the wing where it tapered to a NACA 23009 airfoil. The WM-23 had a conventional landing gear design with the main undercarriage legs joining to the lowest part of the wings and folding outwards to fully lie within the wing profile. Originally Samu Béla had planned for the landing gear to fold inwards to lie within the fuselage, but factory manager Korbuly László insisted on the landing gear folding outwards. This was chosen to avoid the heat from the engine damaging the rubber of the tyres. The tailwheel was also fully retractable into the rear section of the fuselage. The fuselage was made of a welded steel tube structure with plywood skinning. The tail section seems to have been made the same way.
Issues that arose during development:
During testing a few issues arose with the prototype. Firstly, the cooling of the engine did not prove to be efficient enough, leading to the powerful engine quickly overheating, despite the modern mechanism used. Therefore a part of the nose had to be redesigned to solve the problem. Furthermore, there were problems with the landing gear retraction and the brake system also had to be repaired. Finally the aircraft had serious problems with vibrations in some places, especially the ailerons and especially at high speeds. After countless investigations and tests, the problem was half solved when the exhaust system was redesigned, causing the vibrations at lower speeds to cease, although at high speeds the aircraft would continue to vibrate.
The fate of the prototype and project:
One prototype of the WM-23 was made and it bore V.501 as its serial number. It had a silver-grey colour with a smooth surface, and looked like a fast aircraft with an aerodynamic shape, hence it received the name “Ezüst Nyíl” (“Silver Arrow”). The exact date of the WM-23’s first flight is not perfectly clear, but it was likely first flown between February and March 1941 (some sources say 23 February 1941, and this seems plausible). During test flights it demonstrated very good acceleration and good flying characteristics, reaching a maximum speed of 530 km/h which was an improvement over other aircraft Hungary was operating at the time.
On 21 April 1942, whilst test flying the aircraft at maximum speed over Tököl (near Budapest), test pilot Sándor Boskovits noticed the usual vibration at high speeds the prototype suffered from intensify, resulting in the right aileron breaking off at an altitude of 3000 m. This caused the aircraft to soon become uncontrollable (and it got into a spin according to some sources), despite this Boskovits managed to bail out of the aircraft and land safely thanks to his parachute, but the aircraft crashed into the Tököl forest and was completely destroyed.
Before the crash, the WM-23 was planned to soon enter mass production, however after the crash, the situation had changed. By this time the MÁVAG Héja fighter was in use, and it acceptably filled the intended role of the WM-23. Furthermore, Hungarian licence production of the more powerful Messerschmitt Bf 109 (F-4 and G series) was in sight, and now the only prototype was lost. In this situation, it was decided that there was not much point in allocating further resources to completing the project, as a new prototype would need to be made, further development would need to be done to resolve the high speed vibration problems the aircraft still suffered from, and production would need to actually begin. All of this would take a considerable amount of time, and as the WM-23 had similar performance to the Héja and inferior performance to the Bf 109F-4 and G series, by the time the WM-23 could be introduced, it would provide no major benefit over the currently in use Héja and would soon be replaced by the Bf 109 (F-4 and G series). This was probably seen as a huge waste of resources and so the WM-23 project was unfortunately cancelled.
What would this aircraft be like in War Thunder?
I estimate the WM-23 would be a rank II BR 2.7 aircraft. I can see it being rank II or rank III and the BR being 2.3 to 3.0 depending on the exact parameters used and other factors such as manoeuvrability, energy retention, stall characteristics, rip speed of the aircraft and flaps, destructive power of the ammunition, locking up of control surfaces, etc. Also, if Gaijin decides to arm the WM-23 with MG 151 cannons rather than the 12.7 mm MGs, this will also likely increase its BR. However, I don’t think Gaijin should do this as the sources claiming that the WM-23 was armed with MG 151s are less reliable ones, the more reliable sources only mention the 12.7 mm MGs and nothing about MG 151 cannons. Another possibility is to add a version with 12.7 mm guns and add a different, higher BR version with the 20 mm MG 151s, although I urge Gaijin to do their own research to be certain that there really were plans to use MG 151s on the WM-23. Considering Gaijin has said Hungarian vehicles will be located in the Italian tech tree, we can be sure it will go into the Italian tree. Personally, I think this aircraft would be a great addition to the Italian GE premium aircraft section to represent Hungary, much like the IAR 81 for Romania. I would also be happy if this came as a researchable aircraft for a Hungarian sub tree for Italy. I would be less happy to see it added as a limited time event premium or battle pass vehicle, as this really limits the people who can obtain this aircraft, and I fear it will be forgotten in War Thunder too this way. I think event premiums and battle pass vehicles should be reserved for far stranger and less conventional vehicles. This post contains a poll on which option you think is the best for adding the WM-23 into War Thunder, feel free to vote now.
Seeing as the climb rate seems to be very good for its BR, its manoeuvrability seems to be described as quite good and it isn’t slow by any means, I think this aircraft will be a formidable fighter. I also think that the armament will be quite good; 4 very fast firing machine guns, 2 of which are cowling mounted, explosive firing 12.7 mm guns. Against BR 2.7 opponents, this should be more than enough to destroy enemies with ease. With a decent ammunition pool, it might actually be better than low tier cannon armed aircraft that only get a sad 60 rounds per cannon, and have the cannons out in the wings. Of course the role of the WM-23 will be to dogfight and destroy enemy fighters or heavy fighters, but will still be able to hunt bombers when played correctly. With a poor payload however, it won’t be much use as a CAS aircraft in ground RB, except for destroying lightly armoured vehicles.
What would it fly like? How would the cockpit look?
The cockpit was said to have very good visibility in the notes from the test pilot. As far as I’m aware there are no images of what the cockpit looked like from inside, as few documents and very few images of the already rare design survived until today; some may have been intentionally destroyed to stop them from falling into enemy hands, some may have been taken by the Soviets as war trophies or for inspection, some may have been lost or destroyed during the Communist era of Hungary and some may still be out there, having survived but been misplaced.
Seeing as the WM-23 is in the flight simulator X-Plane 11, it may be worth seeing how it flies and performs there, as the WM-23 model in X-Plane 11 has a fully modelled cockpit and can be flown around. Here is a video where the WM-23 is flown in X-Plane 11, showing the fully modelled cockpit, the Fowler flaps, the stall and spin characteristics and more:
Sources used and a note:
Note: I researched this aircraft myself for about a month. I read almost all of the information I could get my hands on for free on the internet about this aircraft from various sources ranging from reliable military history journals, and books, to less reliable websites. I pieced information together by considering everything I had read, how reliable each source was and how realistic each of their claims were. Another thing to take into account is that several sources contradicted each other and couldn’t agree on the precise parameters of this vehicle. Whilst I do believe that the parameters of this aircraft that I have presented are as accurate and reliable as I think I can get them with the information I have, I still urge Gaijin to do some of their own research on this aircraft; maybe they can access information I couldn’t find/access which is more reliable and disagrees with the parameters I have provided. Whilst the information available for the WM-23 isn’t stellar, I’m sure prototype/proposal vehicles like the XP-50, R2Y2, Ki-200, J6K1, Bf 109Z and so on had even less information available, and yet could still be added into War Thunder.
Ok, now for the actual sources. I use brackets like these {note} at the end of sources for any notes about the sources. These are the most reliable sources and the ones I used most often:
- Dénes, Bernád; Punka, György (13 February 2014). Hungarian Fighter Colours – 1930-1945: Volume 2. Vol. 2. Mushroom Model Publications. ISBN 978-8363678210. {Book}
- Rieder, Kurt (2005). Magyar fejlesztések a II. világháborúban és a Magyar Királyi Honvédség haditechnikája [Hungarian developments during the Second World War and the Royal Hungarian Army’s military technology] (in Hungarian). Vagabund Kiadó. pp. 163–168. ISBN 9789639409521. {Book}
- Winkler, László. “A WM–23 magyar kísérleti vadászrepülőgép 1940–1942” [The WM–23 Hungarian experimental fighter aircraft 1940–1942]. haditechnika.hu (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 23 September 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2023. {Archived website, written by a historian, seems to be summarising original documents on the WM-23}
- Pap, Péter (28 September 2012). “ADATTÁR GEBAUER FERENC FEGYVERKONSTRUKTŐR PÁLYAFUTÁSÁHOZ ÉS AZ ÁLTALA TERVEZETT LŐFEGYVEREK KATEGORIZÁLÁSA” [Data Repository on the career of firearms designer Ferenc Gebauer and the categorisation of the firearms designed by him] (PDF). Hadtörténelmi Közlemények a Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum folyóirata (in Hungarian). 125 (3) – via epa.oszk.hu. {A journal, contains information on the Gebauer machine guns the WM-23 would be armed with and their ammunition}
These are less reliable sources which I used much less often, and considered their contents carefully. Some of these sources I would use for no more than one sentence:
- “Серебряная стрела. Ещё о венгерском истребителе WM-23” [Silver Arrow. More about the Hungarian fighter WM-23]. flyjet.hu (in Russian). 21 December 2018. Retrieved 2 January 2023. {Website}
- Fitzsimons, Bernard (1969). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare. Vol. 24. Columbia House. p. 2599. ISBN 9780906704004. {Book/Encyclopedia, only one paragraph used}
- Miranda, Justo (5 December 2019). Enemy at the Gates: Panic Fighters of the Second World War. Fonthill Media. Chapter 12 – Hungary. ASIN B0822Z9LXG . ISBN 978-1781557662. {Book, one page used}
- “Weiss Manfred WM-23 “Ezüst Nyil”” . www.samoloty.ow.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 1 September 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2023. {Archived website, includes info of mixed reliability}
- “Weiss WM-23 Ezust Nyil” . www.airwar.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2 January 2023. {Website}
- “Weiss Manfred WM-23” . aviArmor (in Russian). 2 September 2018. Retrieved 2 January 2023. {Website}
- “HUN - Weiss Manfréd WM 23 Ezüst Nyíl” . Armedconflicts.com (in English and Czech). Retrieved 2 January 2023. {Website, only includes specifications, provides mostly reliable parameters}
- “Gebauer 1918.M (26/31.M, 1940.M GKM)” . www.airwar.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2 January 2023. {Website, used for info on 12.7 mm Gebauer 1940.M GKM Machine Gun}
- “Gebauer 1939.M” . www.airwar.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 7 January 2023. {Website, used for info on 8 mm Gebauer 1939.M Machine Gun}
- Tóth, Marcell (7 January 2018). “Legendás magyar fegyverek (IV. rész): WM-23 Ezüstnyíl” [Legendary Hungarian weapons (Part IV): WM-23 Silver Arrow]. tortenelem.blogstar.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2 January 2023. {Website}
- Kováts, Lajos (1979). “ADATOK A MAGYAR LÉGIERŐ ANYAGI-TECHNIKAI ÁLLAPOTÁRÓL 1938—1944” [DATA ON THE HUNGARIAN AIR FORCE’S MATERIAL AND TECHNICAL SITUATION 1938—1944] (PDF). Hadtörténelmi Közlemények a Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum folyóirata (in Hungarian). 26 (3): 481 – via epa.oszk.hu. {Journal, not unreliable, I only put it here as I used it for just one sentence about the planned mass production of the WM-23}
Now, over to you. What are your thoughts on the WM-23? Do you think it should be added to War Thunder? 
Gallery:
Below are 7 images of the WM-23 in the flight simulator X-Plane 11, below these is an illustration of the WM-23 from the internet, below that is a possible paint scheme of the WM-23. Then there are two real pictures of the WM-23, the one on the left seems to be a poor image that has been heavily edited and the one on the right is a picture of the WM-23 during transport. Below these is a 3 view blueprint picture of the WM-23, then a picture of a 12.7 mm Gebauer 1940.M GKM, below which is a diagram of the ammunition it uses. Below these is a diagram of the gun’s insides, and below that is the only surviving image of an installed pair of 12.7 mm Gebauer 1940.M GKMs. The last 4 images relate to the 8 mm Gebauer 1939.M machine gun; top left is the gun itself, top right is a diagram of the ammunition it uses, below that is an image of the belt it is fed by, and the bottom image is a diagram of the insides of the gun.
(Translated captions can be found further up in the main text)