"Gernot Hassenpflug" wrote in message
...
"Kevin" == Kevin Brooks writes:

Kevin "Ctenos" (reply w/o spam) wrote in
Kevin message
Kevin
...
Is there a consistent basis for this designation in aircraft
armament?

Kevin All cannons *are* guns, so it is OK to refer to them as
Kevin such; but all guns are not cannons. I'd imagine (educated
Kevin guess only) the division between the two comes at the point
Kevin where typical loads can include "payload carrying" rounds,
Kevin which is at the 20mm point (not aware of any *typical*
Kevin loading of HE into rounds under that size, which is why the
Kevin 14.5mm is still refered to as a machine gun and not a
Kevin cannon).

With 'payload' do you mean anything other than 'ball', i.e., HE or
what else? For instance, tracer was available also in 7.7mm rounds I
believe. I think different countries had different names and
conventions for this. Certainly, the Japanese called all calibres up
to 40mm 'machine guns', after the automatic loading.

Tracer is not really a payload, and it has been available even down to the
5.56mm size; I meant a real payload (and it does not have to be HE; we have
various other cannon projectile payloads in the larger bore weapons, to
include even the esoteric artillery delivered jamming system). You gotta
wonder when some bright fellow is going to come up with a cannon fired short
duration/expendable UAV which could provide a rapid response visual/IR recon
capability...

Brooks


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G Hassenpflug * IJN & JMSDF equipment/history fan