Zentralsteuerung released!

This interactive schematic is the result of several weeks of research into the machine gun synchronization drive fitted to WWI Albatros fighters -- information that I sought as I work towards completing Aircraft in Pixels 2: Albatros D.V.  It turns out it's a vast subject with a great deal of information that appears to be lost at this time, or at least buried.  My research tells me that the Albatros D.V series was fitted with at least two types of synchronizer apparatus, and they were completely different in their appearance and how they functioned. Up until possibly as late as July 1917, these airplanes were fitted with a system that was designed in-house, called the "Albatros-Semmler steuerung." Of this system comparatively little is known; so far I have unearthed two photographs and only the briefest of descriptions. It was a pushrod system that operated off a flywheel-like cam that operated the guns via a system of pushrods and linkages. Research on this continues with the hope of reconstructing it.

Of the second system fitted to Albatros D.V series fighters -- indeed all German aircraft with forward firing machine guns after July 1917 -- was the so-called "Zentralsteuerung" developed by the rival Fokker firm. Of this, much more information is available. This system, also known as the flex-drive system, fired the guns by means of a cam attached directly to the gun which was driven by a flexible cable, in turn driven by the engine and engaged via a dog clutch. 

While many people refer to these early devices as "interrupters" implying that the devices prevented the guns firing when the propeller blades were in the path of the bullets, in fact is was the other way around -- the guns would be fired when the blades were clear. It seems like a minor distinction, but it's really not -- these devices fired the guns one shot at a time, effectively relegating the machine guns to semi-automatic weapons, pulling the trigger and releasing, one round at a time. In this way the rate of fire of the machine guns was tied directly to the propeller rpm, which, in most WWI aircraft, was the same as the engine rpm as the props were bolted directly to the crankshaft.

I have chosen to model this simulation to send a firing pulse once every third revolution of the propeller as this is what my research indicates was commonplace for German aircraft -- but there is some uncertainty  exactly what the gear ratio was on the mechanism fitted to the Albatros D.V. The Fokker system comprised many interchangeable parts which could alter the effective firing rate.

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Thanks for reading!

--Bo