Every gun they really carried

October 1, 2026 · feature

Look along the wing of a P-51D now and you'll count six fifties. Every airframe in the hangar has been re-armed with the guns its real variant carried. The cannon and machine guns fire their own rounds at their own pace, and they all meet where your gunsight says they will. Two new airframes also join the end of the line for the pilots who earn them.

A crimson Spitfire close in on the right with muzzle flashes on both wings, its cannon and machine-gun streams reaching away downrange in two different weights of tracer; above it a Bf 109 firing down its nose, and a Navy-blue cannon Corsair beyond pouring four streams of its own — Three batteries talking at once: a Spitfire IX's Hispanos and .303s, a Bf 109 firing through its spinner, and the cannon Corsair's four 20 mm.

The real batteries

**P-51D Mustang, P-40N Warhawk, F4U Corsair** — six fifties in the wings, three a side. A steady, heavy hose that carries well.
**Spitfire Mk IX** — two 20 mm Hispanos and four .303s. The cannon do most of the damage; the .303s fill the air around them.
**P-38 Lightning** — four fifties and a 20 mm, all packed into the nose. Nothing to harmonize: the whole battery fires straight down the centreline.
**Bf 109 G** — a 30 mm MK 108 through the propeller hub and two 13 mm MG 131s over the cowl. The 30 mm fires slowly, but a few hits wreck a fighter.
**Fw 190 A-8** — four 20 mm cannon in the wings and two MG 131s over the cowl: the heaviest punch of any propeller fighter in the hangar.
**Bf 110 G** — two 20 mm cannon and four MG 17s in the nose.
**A-20 Havoc** — six fifties in the gun nose.
**Me 262 Schwalbe** — four 30 mm MK 108s. The jet you earn at 10 kills now carries the most firepower in the sky.
The bombers carry a bomber's guns up front: two fifties in the B-17's chin and the Avenger's wings, an MG 81 in the Ju 88's windscreen, and a 20 mm MG FF in the He 111's glass nose. Their real defence is still the gunners.

Open 🎯 GUNS under any hangar card and it reads you the full battery, for example 2 × 20 mm Hispano + 4 × .303 Browning. The GUNS bar on each card now shows the battery's real punch: a Mustang fills two thirds of it, and an Fw 190 nearly all of it.

Different rounds, one aiming point

Mixed guns don't fly the same arc. The 109's 30 mm shell leaves the muzzle slower than the 13 mm rounds beside it and drops half again as far on the way to 300 m. Real armorers fixed that by tilting each gun up a little so every round met at the same spot, and the hangar does the same. At your harmonization range the whole volley lands on the pip in your sight.

Off that range you can see the difference. Shoot inside it and the slow rounds ride above the quick ones; shoot past it and they drop away underneath. Close in to your range, put the pip on him, and everything you carry arrives together. That's why a 109 pilot sets the range carefully, and why the dial under the GUNS card is worth a look on every airframe you fly.

Heavier rounds also hit harder. A Spitfire's two Hispanos do twice the damage of its four .303s together, and one 30 mm hit counts for several fifties. A six-fifty Mustang lands lots of medium hits, while a 109 wants a few big ones.

Two new rides to earn

Spitfire Mk XVI — the Spitfire with the E wing: the two Hispanos moved outboard and a pair of fifties replace the four .303s. The fifties hit harder and fly flatter, so the whole battery drops along one tighter line. Unlocks at 5 career kills.

F4U-1C Corsair — the cannon Corsair: four 20 mm Hispanos in the gull wing in place of the six fifties, with its eight rockets still on the rails. It hits harder than any other propeller fighter except the Fw 190. Unlocks at 15 career kills.

Both fly like the airframes they come from for now. The difference is the guns. They take their place on the ladder in the order you'll reach them: the Mk XVI at 5, the Me 262 at 10, the F4U-1C at 15 and the F-104 at 25. The bots never fly them; you have to earn them.