SPANDAU BALLET

[CutlassCollector]

Originally Posted by kronckew

[I][B]

Ukraine is currently taking WW1 and earlier water cooled Spandaus/Maxims and using them in their front lines. Air cooled machine guns have limited barrel life due to heat buildup, requiring barrel replacement after just a couple hundred rounds, not a problem with water cooled WW1 style weapons which are favoured against Russian WW1 mass attack tactics. I am not sure if the air cooled ones in WW1 aircraft were sufficiently cooled by the aircraft motion & propeller wind.

Great guns!

Perhaps, air cooled was a good choice for early airplanes for weight reasons. And as ammunition is also heavy, planes could not carry much so burning out the barrels not likely.
For example a fully armed WW2 Spitfire could only carry enough ammunition to fire its guns for around 20 seconds.
Skill was a crucial factor in aiming where the enemy plane was going to be not where it was, hence the training of pilots on clay pigeon shooting.