9,750,000 rounds per minute.

Fuel flow varied due to many factors but taking 280 GPH as a nominal value would be about 4,600 gallons per minute.

 

Ah, I thought by the title that this was going to be the Brady Campaign's latest figure on the shooting capability of a Glock 47. As for aircraft, if you left the bomb load behind and used that weight for extra .50 BMG incendiary ammo, then pointed all those guns at the ground over a city what kind of result would you get? Millions of small fires or a lot of wasted ammo?

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One has to wonder about the profit margins of the companies supplying the ammo in that war. Huge, huge fortunes must have been amassed.

 

Probably very little effect. The British realized that unless a house or building was blown open the incendiary bombs had little effect, so little bullets couldn't have done much damage. Perhaps just a lot of leaky roofs when it rained.

 

Incendiary bullets. I think you'd have a lot of fires with such rounds crashing down into thousands of buildings. Would it be as, or more, effective than a much smaller number of incendiary bombs? Probably not, but a .50 BMG round would crash right down to basement level in most buildings and you'd have a lot of small fires popping up across whole cities. The limiting factor would be the number of rounds you could fire. The M2 didn't have quick-change barrels, but then they were hanging outside the plane and would cool quickly... Your average pilot would probably not want to hang around for an hour so above Mannheim while his gunners fired down into the city with long pauses to let their guns cool down. Interesting to think about, but probably not practical.

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KB: The incendiary bullets had their WP in the tip of the bullet. It splattered out when it hit something and then was sucked into the bullet hole by suction of the bullet's passage. The amount of WP was very small and was lit for perhaps a half-second. Good enough if the bullet plows through fuel tanks or lines but wouldn't be lit long enough to start wood on fire. Besides, after falling five miles there is a great likelihood that bullets would be destabilized and tumbling with corresponding effects on their penetration.

 

Another consideration is weight. A 100 round box of 50 cal is about 35 lbs or 16 kilograms. For every 3 rounds you reduce bomb load by 1 pound.

 

100 rounds .50 cal, linked M2 ball, is 35 lbs. as Pacifist said.

 

Ah well, drop your bombs and then let the gunners shoot off a belt of two for morale.

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