CF-104/F-104 Ammunition Can

[roncl]

Does anyone have any detailed pictures or drawings showing the ammunition can for the F-104 M61 20mm Vulcan cannon?  I would be very interested in seeing how the shells are loaded into the can, as well as how the shells are fed from the can to the gun. I would also be interested in seeing where the spent cases and links are collected under the cannon. I hope someone can help me out. Thanks!

[Snowbird3a]

this would get way more responses if was in General Discussion, instead of the archived topics 

 

Tony

[roncl]

Yes, not sure why this was placed in archived topics. Admin, can you clarify?  Thanks. 

[GW8345]

The F-104 used the M61 gun system which was a (basically) a closed loop system, the spent casings did not eject from the aircraft, instead they were returned to the ammunition drum.

 

Here is a link that explains the M61 gun system, no matter what aircraft it was in it operated the same, the only different was the size of the ammunition drum (how many rounds it could hold) and how the "ammunition handling system" was laid out.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M61_Vulcan

 

If you search for "F-104 M61 gun system" you might be able to find a pic on how the system was laid out.

 

hth

GW

[Dave Williams]

The links were ejected on some F-104s.  They had a small deflector under the forward fuselage that prevented the links from being sucked into the intakes.  On others, the links went into the same space with the shells.  Usually the deflector was missing on those, as well as on F-104s that had the gun removed.

 

This photo shows the link deflector, just aft of the open gun hatch.

 

https://photovault.com/82494

Unlike more modern installations, the F-104 didn’t use a drum magazine, so the shells couldn’t just be recycled into the drum.  There was a cartridge bay behind the ammo cans on the F-104.  According  to the DACO book, keeping the links onboard in addition to the cases reduced the ammo load to 420 rounds.

 

There are good pictures of the ammo bay in the DACO book.

[roncl]

Thanks for the excellent information Dave and the great picture showing the link deflector!  I haven’t seen many pictures of it, and since its use was discontinued after it was discovered that the links would damage the fuselage, I guess there aren’t an awful

lot of them out there. 

 

There is a cover that is often attached over the cannon body. You can see it laying on the gun panel that is open. Do you know what the purpose of this panel was?

 

Finally, does the DACO publication have any good pictures showing the three compartments of the ammo can that the ammunition was loaded into, as well as the top shelf and the lid of ammo can?  Thanks!