how did propellor warplanes shoot their machine guns through the propellor?
In: 2413
The very first ones with fixed guns didn’t. They just added armour to the propeller, and any rounds that hit it just bounced away. It wasn’t remotely perfect, it added weight, and it wasn’t unknown for a pilot to effectively shoot their own propeller off.
In 1915 that changed, when Fokker came up with an “interrupter gear” mechanism to briefly prevent the guns firing whenever the propshaft was in certain positions (basically just a cam and a lever linkage, I believe). Every time the cam hit the linkage, it briefly blocked the gun from firing. Then all you had to do was set the cam in the right position. (Edit sp.)
Edit 2: Nope, that was the first, pre-war design. See below.
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