OCR Text |
Show me ummate oDjecnve oi ootn ine army and European belligerents is a time fuse that will explode aircraft air-craft cannon shells "in the vicinity" of the target like anti-aircraft and artillery shells. The great speed of planes carrying carry-ing cannon and the target planes, and the fact that the range is not fixed have been apparently insurmountable insur-mountable obstacles in the search for an aircraft cannon time fuse. Marshall Explains Cannon.-' Experimental firing of big 75's from heavy bombers was first disclosed dis-closed by Gen. George C. Marshall, army chief of staff, in testimony before be-fore a house appropriations committee commit-tee on the preparedness program. Since then, army sources disclosed, a special recoil mechanism and a shorter barrel have been developed to make the gun more suitable for aircraft mounting. Use of 75's on bombers has not been extensive, these sources said, because the weight of the gun and mounting, more than a ton, cuts both speed of the plane and the weight of the bomb load. Air corps and ordnance experts are now studying the practicability of installing three cannon on pursuit pur-suit planes but there have been no indications a mounting design for this project has been developed. |