Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurfürst
Regardless, the competing German firms seems to have been putting with a twin cowl MG at the start (which was pretty much standard for the biplanes they replaced anyway)
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There does seem to have been an attitude that "if it was good enough for Boelcke, then it's good enough for us." It seems with the Bf 109 that increasing the armament beyond 2 x MG 17 was a messy compromise every time (bulges on the cowling, a breech between the pilot's feet, underwing gondolas) — Prof. Messerschmitt didn't leave much space for luxuries like armament.
I agree with you that the I-16 seems to have been well ahead of the pack (and IIRC, Alfred Price wrote that it a particularly good cannon).