The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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Both photographs: U.S. Navy. Via Francillon (1979) |
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| Ammunition |
40 x 129 caseless HE |
| Projectile
Weight |
1.29 lbs 585 g |
| Velocity | 760 feet per second 232 meters per second |
| Range | 490 feet 150 meters |
| Rate of
fire |
450 rounds per minute |
| Gun weight |
196 lbs 89 kg |
The Ho-301 cannon was installed in a small number of Ki-44 "Tojo" fighters.
It was a rather odd duck,
achieving its high rate of fire by eliminating the cartridge and
placing the propellant charge in a rear chamber of the projectile
itself. This made for a simple and compact gun design, since there was
no need for any cartridge extraction mechanism, but this came at the
cost of a very low muzzle velocity, which
adversely affected range and accuracy. One source (Mikesh 2004) has
described the gun as an automatic grenade launcher and likened it to
the Type 89 "knee mortar". The action was
advanced primer ignition blowback. Ammunition came in boxes of 10
rounds, suggesting the fixed gun on the "Tojo" was good for one or two
short bursts, though these would have been lethal against even the
largest bombers if on target.
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References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2013 by Kent G. Budge. Index
