Talk:Shpitalny Sh-37

A fact from Shpitalny Sh-37 appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 2 August 2013 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that there were only 240 of the Soviet cannon Shpitalny Sh-37 created?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2013/August. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Shpitalny Sh-37.

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Muzzle brake[edit]

Although I found no source saying this in text, it's seems clear from the pictures that on the Il-2 (unlike the Yak-7) the Sh-37 gun was installed with a muzzle brake. This fits well with the generally known fact (see Rapid Fire, 2000, p. 159) that the engine block was the best place for a heavy caliber gun in a single-engine aircraft. Someone not using his real name (talk) 16:03, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And funny enough, the photo I've used in the infobox here is misidentified as being one of the NS-45 on the next (160) page of Rapid Fire, presumably because the author of that book had not seen any picture of the receiver of that gun at the time (it looks substantially different). Never mind that the gun in this pic is clearly gas operated (large piston under the barrel) while the MP-6/NS-37/NS-45 family (OKB-16) were all short recoil. Someone not using his real name (talk) 17:36, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It would be really amusing if both authors (Gordon, Williams) were wrong and in this photo we had the illusive Sh-45 prototype. Russian sources however say that the Sh-45 was only installed on a fighter aircraft (LaGG-3 or Yak-9T, depending on which source you want to believe) before it was rejected out of hand for state trials. Someone not using his real name (talk) 17:53, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting enough, Gordon found an official report from which he quotes on p. 36 in his OKB Ilyushin book, which says that an Il-2 armed with the Sh-45 cannon was completed on Oct 27, 1943, but was not flown to the NII VVS because of bad weather. Someone not using his real name (talk) 18:01, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Oleg Rastrenin, who has written a lot (in Russian) about the Il-2, also identifies the photos we have in this article as being with Sh-37 in his 2007 book with ISBN 978-5-699-23791-3 (pp. 78-79). So, I think we're pretty safe with current photos. Someone not using his real name (talk) 18:15, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]