An engine gun, or engine cannon (from , "motor cannon"), is an aircraft gun mounted behind and through the

cylinder block In an internal combustion engine, the engine block is the structure that contains the cylinders and other components. The engine block in an early automotive engine consisted of just the cylinder block, to which a separate crankcase was attach ...

of an inline aircraft engine (most often a

V engine A V engine, sometimes called a Vee engine, is a common configuration for internal combustion engines. It consists of two cylinder banks—usually with the same number of cylinders in each bank—connected to a common crankshaft. These cylinder ...

) with a

reduction drive A reduction drive is a mechanical device to shift rotational speed. A planetary reduction drive is a small scale version using ball bearings in an epicyclic arrangement instead of toothed gears. Reduction drives are used in engines of all kinds ...

that displaces the propeller axle to be in line with the gun so that

gunfire A gunshot is a single discharge of a gun, typically a man-portable firearm, producing a visible flash, a powerful and loud shockwave and often chemical gunshot residue. The term can also refer to a ballistic wound caused by such a discharg ...

is allowed through the propeller hub. This allows for nose-mounted weaponry on aircraft without the need for

synchronization gear A synchronization gear (also known as a gun synchronizer or interrupter gear) was a device enabling a single-engine tractor configuration aircraft to fire its forward-firing armament through the arc of its spinning Propeller (aeronautics), propel ...

while also permitting higher calibers for nose-mounted weaponry, which otherwise would be hard to adapt for synchronization gear. The first time this was done was during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

when the French modified the

Hispano-Suiza 8 The Hispano-Suiza 8 is a Internal combustion engine cooling, water-cooled V8 engine, V8 SOHC aero engine introduced by Hispano-Suiza in 1914 that went on to become the most commonly used liquid-cooled engine in the aircraft of the Entente Powers ...

engine to be able to install a 37 mm autocannon. The concept was used widely before the

Jet Age The Jet Age is a period in the history of aviation defined by the advent of aircraft powered by jet turbine engines and the social and cultural changes fostered by commercial jet travel. Jet airliners were able to fly higher, faster, and farth ...

Historical engine guns

Finnish guns

* 12.7 mm VKT 12,70 LKk/42 (single use on a Morane-Saulnier MS.406)

French guns

* 7.5 mm

MAC 1934 The MAC 1934 is a machine gun of French origin. It is effectively the aircraft variant of the Reibel machine gun. History In 1934, the ''Manufacture d'Armes de Châtellerault'' ( Châtellerault weapons manufacturing company, often shortened to ...

* 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 * 37 mm SAMC (''Semi Automatique Moteur Canon'')

German guns

* 7.9 mm MG 17 machine gun * 20 mm

MG 151 cannon The ''Maschinengewehr'' (MG) 151 is a belt-fed autocannon for aircraft use, developed in Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1940 and produced by Waffenfabrik Mauser during World War II. It was originally produced in 15.1 mm caliber from 1940, with a ...

* 30 mm

MK 103 cannon The Rheinmetall-Borsig MK 103 ("MK" - '' Maschinenkanone'') was a German 30 mm caliber autocannon that was mounted in German combat aircraft during World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September ...

* 30 mm

MK 108 cannon The MK 108 (German: ''Maschinenkanone''—"machine cannon") is a 30 mm caliber autocannon manufactured in Germany during World War II by Rheinmetall‑Borsig for use in aircraft. Development The weapon was developed as a private venture by the c ...

Soviet guns

* 12.7 mm

Berezin UB The Berezin UB () (''Berezin's Universal'') was a 12.7 mm caliber Soviet aircraft machine gun widely used during World War II. Development In 1937, began designing a new large-caliber aircraft machine gun chambered to the 12.7 mm roun ...

* 20 mm

Berezin B-20 The Berezin B-20 (Березин Б-20) was a 20 mm caliber autocannon used by Soviet aircraft in World War II. Development The B-20 was created by Mikhail Yevgenyevich Berezin in 1944 by converting his 12.7 mm Berezin UB machine gun to us ...

* 20 mm

ShVAK cannon The ShVAK (, "Shpitalny-Vladimirov Aviation Large-calibre") was a 20 mm autocannon used by the Soviet Union during World War II. It was designed by Boris Shpitalniy and Semyon Vladimirov and entered production in 1936. ShVAK were installed in ma ...

* 23 mm

Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 The NS-23 was a aircraft cannon designed by A. E. Nudelman, A. Suranov, G. Zhirnykh, V. Nemenov, S. Lunin, and M. Bundin during World War II as a replacement for the Volkov-Yartsev VYa-23 cannon. It entered service in 1944. The NS-23 round was ...

* 37 mm

Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 The Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 () was a aircraft cannon, which replaced the unreliable Shpitalny Sh-37 gun. Large caliber was planned to allow destruction of both ground targets (including armoured ones) and planes (ability to shoot down a bomber wi ...

* 37 mm

Nudelman N-37 The Nudelman N-37 was a 37 mm (1.46 in) aircraft autocannon used by the Soviet Union. It was designed during World War II by V. Ya. Nemenov of Alexander Nudelman, A.E. Nudelman's OKB-16 to replace the earlier Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 and e ...

* 45 mm

Nudelman-Suranov NS-45 The Nudelman-Suranov NS-45 was an enlarged version of the Soviet Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 aircraft autocannon. It was evaluated for service on 44 Yakovlev Yak-9K aircraft during World War II, but proved to stress the airframes too much. The NS-45 w ...

Swiss guns

* 20 mm

Oerlikon FF The FF were a series of 20mm autocannon introduced by Oerlikon in the late 1920s. The name comes from the German term ''Flügel Fest'', meaning ''wing mounted, fixed'', being one of the first 20mm guns to be small and light enough to fit into a f ...

Engine gun installations

French engines

(various models) *

Hispano-Suiza 12Y The Hispano-Suiza 12Y was an aircraft engine produced by Hispano-Suiza for the French Air Force before the Second World War. The 12Y became the primary French 1,000 hp (750 kW) class engine and was used in a number of famous aircraft ...

German engines

Daimler-Benz DB 603 The Daimler-Benz DB 603 was a German aircraft engine used during World War II. It was a liquid-cooled 12-cylinder inverted V12 enlargement of the 33.9 Liter DB 601, which was in itself a development of the DB 600. Production of the DB 603 ...

Daimler-Benz DB 605 The Daimler-Benz DB 605 is a German aircraft engine built during World War II. Developed from the DB 601, the DB 605 was used from 1942 to 1945 in the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, and the Bf 110 and Me 210C heavy fighters. The DB 610, a pa ...

Soviet engines

Klimov M-105 The Klimov M-105 was a V12 liquid-cooled piston aircraft engine used by Soviet aircraft during World War II.Gunston 1989, p. 90 Development The M-105, designed in 1940, drew heavily on Klimov's experience with the Hispano-Suiza 12Y ( license ...

Klimov VK-106 The Klimov VK-106 was an experimental liquid-cooled V12 piston aircraft engine intended for Soviet aircraft during World War II.Gunston 1989, p. 90. Development With the VK-105PF exhausting the potential of the M-105, Klimov prolonged its de ...

Klimov VK-107 The Klimov VK-107 was a V-12 liquid-cooled piston aircraft engine used by Soviet Union, Soviet aircraft during World War II. Development The VK-107 was developed from the Klimov M-105, M-105 and Klimov VK-106, VK-106. To achieve a greater power ...

Swiss engines

* Saurer YS-2 *

Saurer YS-3 Adolph Saurer AG was a Switzerland, Swiss manufacturer of embroidery and textile machines, trucks and buses under the Saurer and Berna (beginning in 1929) brand names. Based in Arbon, Switzerland, the firm was active between 1903 and 1982. Their ve ...

Aircraft with engine guns

Czechoslovakian aircraft

* Avia Bk-534 * Avia B-135

Finnish aircraft

* Mörkö Morane

French aircraft

* Dewoitine D.500 * Dewoitine D.520 * Loire-Nieuport LN.401 * Morane-Saulnier M.S.405 * Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 * Morane-Saulnier M.S.410 * Morane-Saulnier M.S.411 * Morane-Saulnier M.S.412 * Morane-Saulnier M.S.450 *

SPAD S.XII The SPAD S.XII or SPAD 12 was a French single-seat biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War developed from the successful SPAD VII by Louis Béchereau, chief designer of the Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés (SPAD). Development ...

German aircraft

* Blohm & Voss BV 155 *

Dornier Do 335 The Dornier Do 335 ''Pfeil'' (Arrow) is a heavy fighter built by Dornier for Germany during World War II. The ''Pfeil''s performance was predicted to be better than other twin-engine designs due to its unusual push-pull configuration and the l ...

Heinkel He 100 The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel. Although it proved to be one of the fastest fighter aircraft in the world at the time of its development, the design was not ordered into series production. ...

Heinkel He 112 The Heinkel He 112 is a German fighter aircraft designed by Walter and Siegfried Günter. It was one of four aircraft designed to compete for the 1933 fighter contract of the ''Luftwaffe'', in which it came second behind the Messerschmitt Bf 1 ...

(''"kanonenvogel"'') *

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a monoplane fighter aircraft that was designed and initially produced by the Nazi Germany, German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt#History, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). Together with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the ...

Italian aircraft

* Fiat G.55 Centauro * Fiat G.56 * Macchi C.205 Veltro * Reggiane Re.2005 Sagittario * Savoia-Marchetti SM.92

Soviet aircraft

Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 (Лавочкин-Горбунов-Гудков ЛаГГ-3) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a refinement of the earlier LaGG-1 and was one of the most modern aircraft available to the So ...

Yakovlev Yak-1 The Yakovlev Yak-1 () was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. The Yak-1 was a single-seat monoplane with a composite structure and wooden wings; production began in early 1940.Angelucci and Matricardi 1978, p. 239. The Yak-1 was a man ...

Yakovlev Yak-3 The Yakovlev Yak-3 (Russian language, Russian: Яковлев Як-3) is a single-engine, single-seat World War II Soviet Union, Soviet fighter aircraft, fighter. Robust and easy to maintain, it was much liked by both pilots and ground crew.Glan ...

Yakovlev Yak-7 The Yakovlev Yak-7 (; NATO reporting name: Mark)Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1955-56 p. 188 was developed from the earlier Yak-1 fighter, initially as a trainer but converted into a fighter. As both a fighter and later reverting to its ori ...

Yakovlev Yak-9 The Yakovlev Yak-9 (; NATO reporting name: Frank) is a single-engine, single-seat multipurpose fighter aircraft used by the Soviet Union and its allies during World War II and the early Cold War. It was a development of the robust and successful ...

Swedish aircraft

* SAAB 23

Swiss aircraft

* C-35 * C-3603 * C-3604 * D-3800 * D-3801 * D-3802 * D-3803

Yugoslavian aircraft

Ikarus S-49 The Ikarus S-49 is a Yugoslav single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft built for the Yugoslav Air Force () shortly after World War II. Following the Tito–Stalin Split in 1948, the Yugoslav Air Force was left with an aircraft inventory cons ...

Rogožarski IK-3 The Rogožarski IK-3 was a 1930s Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav monoplane single-seat Fighter aircraft, fighter, designed by Ljubomir Ilić, Kosta Sivčev and Slobodan Zrnić as a successor to the Ikarus IK-2 fighter. Its armament consisted of ...

References

External links

{{commonscat, Engine guns, position=left Aircraft guns