File talk:M2Air.jpg

Are we sure this is an .50 cal M2 Aircraft and not an AN/M2? --Funkychinaman (talk) 10:05, 10 September 2013 (EDT)

this image

Browning AN/M2, flexible mount - .30-06 Springfield

Thats deffinitely the .30 cal AN/M2, not a .50 cal M2 Aircraft. There are a lot of small differences, but the most obvious ones are the back of the barrel where it attaches to the receiver and the corresponding mount, and the scale of the spade grips. --commando552 (talk) 11:31, 10 September 2013 (EDT)

Are both the .50 and .30 cal versions both called AN/M2, or is Wikipedia just wrong? --Funkychinaman (talk) 11:48, 10 September 2013 (EDT)

Not sure but I think it is only the the .30 one. I don't really get the Army/Navy thing so it may apply as something that can just be whacked on the front of the .50 designation, but even if it is technically correct I think we should just keep calling the .50 the "M2 Aircraft" to differentiate them. Most of the stuff that I have read says that there were originally 3 variants of the M2, and refers to them as the heavy barrel, water cooled and aircraft. After that there was a long string of experimental aircraft guns, mostly aimed at increasing the rate of fire to make them more effective in the air role. One of these that was actually issued was the T36 which managed about 900 RPM (which I think became the M2A1 which I just realised means that there have been two "M2A1"s which are totally different variants), and then there was the T25E3 which became the M3. --commando552 (talk) 14:30, 10 September 2013 (EDT)