Warbird Information Exchange

I don't know about Lou's P-51 but I remember seeing clips of a guy (I believe it's Mike Dillon) that was an acquantance of Lou's who also owned a Super Pinto (hence the connection to Lou). Dillon ( a former airline/military pilot) started up "Dillon Precision", an ammo reloading company. Dillon is also the same guy that bought the manufacturing rights for the not-so-impressive General Electric GAU-2 mini gun and reworked it into the amazing Dillon M-134D mini gun. This Dillon fellow lives out in Scottsdale and owns land somewhere up in the Sierra Nevadas complete with trashed out cars for the purpose of practicing strafing runs. I thought he got approval to outfit his super pinto with machine guns. I was pretty sure that those were the clips I had seen. A pinto with a mini gun. But it's been too long now and I can't swear to it.

That's not the same Dillon that had live .30's in a T-6 back in the '60s or '70s, is it?

Ah, and for the curious, the below site lists some of the items that can be had, including an M2HB .50 for a mere $52,900...(plus tax)

http://www.autoweapons.com/products/products.html

And speakin' o' blanks, still have 2 cases of linked .30 left...

_________________
Bob

When I worked at Ezell Aviation and help build Lewis Shaw's Mustang, the plan was indeed to have the guns working (at Dillon's place). We even installed a couple tinly little cameras on the airplane to document it all. However, I don't know if the gun shootin' stuff actually happened.

Gary

Those look like star tip blanks. The barrel has to be modified to keep some of the back pressure to cycle the action, but not so much the barrel fails. One cannot fire live rounds with the modified barrel. Some have a clamp on barrel device to allow standard M-2's to fire blanks.

I've fired a M-2 off our ring mount on our DUKW. The whole truck shook, and DUKW's aint tiny or light.

Don't know what kind of arrangement they've made for BFD's for their wing guns, but (for those who haven't seen one), a milspec BFD for a ground gun looks like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Brow ... aliber.jpg

Unless they have modified barrels, I'd suspect that the AN/M2 or M3's will have a device attached to the barrel jacket for that purpose. Since they're in-wing mounted, probably something similar to the accelerator cap BFD used on either the 1919A4 or -A6. With that attachment, you can still use the regular barrels.

_________________
Bob

Speaking of Dillon Aero, here's a great video from their website.
I believe the Huey and the 500 are theirs. Video shot on their range.

http://dillonaero.com/docs/highlight1.wmv

The Discovery Channel program, "Futureweapons" last segment is dedicated to the Dillon minigun (with Huey) just started replaying..NOW. The 30mm M44 cannon with the "smart" airburst rounds was awesome as well. The new converto weapon M-16 replacement was pretty sharp too!

Sorry for the slow headsup...got lost in F3F electric/manual LG retract data digging....

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Not to waver much off topic, but I would think cost-wise as well for the sheer visual impact it would be very straightforward to do rockets using some of the larger model rocket engines.

Even the sight of on O-1 launching off some replica 2.75" or WP with the smoke trail as a tracer would be awesome. The 2.25" SCAR rockets would be even easier to do. An aluminum tube, 4 fins and a nosecone with a 10 pound thrust engine - it's really not much different than a standard model rocket, just air launched. And rocket racks are fairly available for numerous aircraft types, both as original or replica, the O-1 and O-2 crowd immediately coming to mind.

Anyone ever done this?

I can't imagine you could (or ever would again) be able to get insurance to do this near a large crowd of people. A bent fin or a damaged nozzle could send the rocket off course into the crowd. Sounds risky to me, but I would like very much to see it if it was determined to be safe.

To get the gun to cycle correctly & feed the next round it needs some back pressure. When a bullet is traveling along the barrel this takes care of that detail.
To get a blank firing M2 to cycle you need to put a restriction in there someplace to create the backpressure. Welding a washer with a 3/8in hole in it to the end of the barrel usually does it...

_________________
Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

Easiest way to make a fully-functional Browning M3 fire blanks is 1) replace the threaded booster cap (see link) with one that is designed to fire blanks (or a standard one that has been welded up and drilled out to generate sufficient bore pressure), 2) place a feed block in the receiver feed area to prevent ball ammo from being fired.

Booster cap - part no 7312953
http://www.bmgparts.com/aircraft.html

Or, yes, you CAN use a welded-up barrel, but that's REALLY a pain in the wazoo, 'cause you have to get the right sized opening to avoid too much/little back pressure, make sure it fits the cap, etc.

If you look closely at the waist guns firing in Memphis Belle, they have modified booster caps for blank firing. (The ball turret guns in the bottom-on view, btw, appear to be .30's, not .50s.)

HELLCAT Wrote:


1. They're not illegal, or not illegal to own, anyway.
2. Yes, they are about 20 minutes worth of work per gun to fire live ammo.

_________________
Bob