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Avion Canon Voisin

doppz92

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Hello, I was talking to a friend this morning who made me aware of the fact that guns were mounted on some French Voisins planes during WW1. After a little research I found out these guns were 37mm (I assume 37x94R?) and Hotchkiss 47mm (47x131R?). Were these cannons only used to engage ground targets? Or were they also used for shooting at planes? In this case what kind of projectile could have been used? Canister type?
I cannot find any info on the precise type of ammunition used, could someone enlighten me or point me to the right direction?
TIA. Frank
 
Here is the information you are looking for. I suspect that the 47mm cannon was perhaps
not so widely used as the 37mm. But it was also mounted on larger floatplanes better able
to carry it and where ground fire was the intent (U Boats) It appears the 37mm armed aircraft
were dispersed through bombing formations for defence, though with the Mle 1902 round and the 47mm ground fire was certainly possible. It would seem that the Voisin's received the long barrelled Mle 1902 Tube cannon guns ( A gun derived from the navel Mle 1902 Subcalibre cannon
as used for Navel gun practice) and the Mle 1885 37x94 rounds were all for Spad cannon mounted aircraft.
The cannon in the Spad's were a semi automatic breech loading gun "S.A.M.C.". Semi automatic in this case means that
the gun ejected the empty case but the pilot had to load the next round. The Automatic cannon was a scaled up Chauchat
machine gun type mounted on the engine "A.M.C.". I don't know if the automatic gun got into service before the war ended. While not differentiated there are the flat ended LCM canister rounds as shown. But there were also LCM canisters fitted with a round nosed wood end. I believe the latter
were made for the Automatic cannon as surely the flat ended variety would easily jam.
For the Spad cannon there were two different barrels, Cannon Lisse is a smooth bore barrel used with the long canister with Horizontal slits near the tip.
Cannon Raye is a rifled barrel for everything else.
The listings with images date for 1916 and rounds like the Mle 1888 with sensitive fuze do not survive in 1918 ( I have never heard of an existing example)
Nor do the Mle 1888 with the Schneider fuzes No 3 & No 6 , though as examples survive they must have been around some where.
I do not have a listing for the 47mm gun, but the types followed the 37mm 1916 D shell patterns. The canisters that show up are of the Hotchkiss pattern, but there was of course a French Navel issue in the Puteaux style. Oddly or perhaps not, is that the tracers in these when marked are made by Semple in Pittsburg PA as he had the Patent on these.
If anyone has a spare Schneider fuze No 6 I would be very glad to here of it ~ :tinysmile_fatgrin_t
 

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The Automatic cannon was a scaled up Chauchat machine gun type mounted on the engine "A.M.C.". I don't know if the automatic gun got into service before the war ended.

I don't think it did. There were actually two different 37 mm automatics in development at Puteaux at the end of WW1: a small one in 37 x 94R and a big one using the C.O.W. gun's 37 x 190 ammo. Neither entered service, as far as I know.
 
Puteaux may have been working with a sample COW gun as French cases were made. Here are images of the various 37mm & 47mm cannon
 

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France did actually place orders for the C.O.W. gun, but what with the difficulties in finding a suitable factory to make the guns, deliveries to France hadn't begun by the time the war ended. Even the RAF only managed to get a handful of planes equipped with the gun to the Front.
 
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