During the First World War aerial combat grew in popularity with many fighters carrying pistols to ward off the enemy. But as the clashes grew more frequent, machine guns were mounted to the nose just behind the propellor.

Miraculously, the multiple rounds could be unloaded and synced to miss the blade each time.

The Slow Mo Guys lovingly recreate an old school dogfight scenario to demonstrate just how a machine gun can unload its bullets without obliterating the propellor in front of it.

Using a replica WW1 fighter fuselage and M60 machine gun, Gav and Dan slow the gunfire down to 120,000 frames per second using a Phantom v2511 camera. While you wouldn’t be see it with the naked eye, the bullet comes very close to hitting the propellor, but every time it misses without fail thanks to the glorious invention of the synchronisation gear in 1915.

2016-11-24 03:00