engine gun
File:Hs12 Ydrs.jpg aircraft engine (cylinders removed) with Hispano-Suiza HS.404 engine gun mounted]]
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-390-1220-20, Russland, Flugzeug Me 109 des JG 54, Wartung.jpg soldier inspects the engine gun alignment of a Bf 109 fighter aircraft]]
File:Daimler-Benz DB 605 showing crankshaft for motorkanone.jpg for an engine gun.]]
An engine gun, or engine cannon (from {{langx|de|Motorkanone}}, "motor cannon"), is an aircraft gun mounted behind and through the cylinder block of an inline aircraft engine (most often a V engine) with a reduction drive that displaces the propeller axle to be in line with the gun so that gunfire is allowed through the propeller hub. This allows for nose-mounted weaponry on aircraft without the need for synchronization gear while also permitting higher calibers for nose-mounted weaponry, which otherwise would be hard to adapt for synchronization gear.{{cite web |title=PART V AUTOMATIC AIRCRAFT CANNON |url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/MG/I/MG-5.html |website=ibiblio.org |access-date=2025-05-18}}
The first time this was done was during World War I when the French modified the Hispano-Suiza 8 engine to be able to install a 37 mm autocannon.{{Cite book |last=Thorsson |first=Nils |title=Historik och kartläggning av vapenmateriel för flygplan |year=1975 |location=Arboga, Sweden |pages=25}} The concept was used widely before the Jet Age.
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
- 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
- 30 mm MK 103 cannon
- 30 mm MK 108 cannon
= Soviet guns =
- 12.7 mm Berezin UB
- 20 mm Berezin B-20
- 20 mm ShVAK cannon
- 23 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-23
- 37 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-37
- 37 mm Nudelman N-37
- 45 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-45
= Swiss guns =
- 20 mm Oerlikon FF
Engine gun installations
File:Hispano-Suiza 8C (MAE).JPG engine for a SPAD S.XII WWI aircraft, showing the elevated intake manifold to clear the 37 mm cannon (shown to the right) mounted in the "V" between the cylinder banks.]]
= French engines =
- Hispano-Suiza 8 (various models)
- Hispano-Suiza 12Y
= German engines =
= Soviet engines =
= Swiss engines =
Aircraft with engine guns
= Czechoslovakian aircraft =
File:Bk-534.jpg, a biplane with a 20 mm engine gun]]
= Finnish aircraft =
= French aircraft =
= German aircraft =
- Blohm & Voss BV 155
- Dornier Do 335
- Heinkel He 100
- Heinkel He 112 ("kanonenvogel")
- Messerschmitt Bf 109
= Italian aircraft =
= Soviet aircraft =
File:Yakovlev Yak-9K.jpg with the 45 mm Nudelman-Suranov NS-45 engine gun mounted]]
= Swedish aircraft =
= Swiss aircraft =
= Yugoslavian aircraft =
References
{{reflist}}