MG FF cannon

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A restored MG FF cannon

The MG FF was a drum-fed 20 mm aircraft cannon developed in 1936 by Oerlikon and license-produced in Germany. The MG FF was designed for use at fixed or flexible mountings in Luftwaffe aircraft during World War II.
It had some serious disadvantages like low rate of fire (RoF)and muzzle velocity as well as being drum-fed. Wing installation on Bf 109 and Fw 190 was not easy as the drum needed lots of space thus limiting the ammo storage to ~60 shots. The current knowledge is that a better drum with a 90-round nominal capacity was developed for Fw190A-5 and retrofitted to some earlier variants. There were also experiments with belt feed.

The MG FF was improved to fire a high explosive mine shot (Minengeschoss) with thinner walls but carried more explosives. This projectile was lighter and generated less recoil than earlier projectiles requiring the cannon was modified to the MG FF/M in Summer 1940.
The MG FF and FF/M saw widespread use in fighters like Bf 109E, early Bf 109F, Bf 110 C to F and Fw 190A-2 to A-5 as well as in some bombers like Do 217, He 111 and many other aircraft. It was often replaced with the 20 mm Mg 151/20 during 1943 but saw a come-back as primary Schräge Musik gun in the Bf 110 night fighters as it perfectly fits into the rear cockpit.

Technical Data

Weight : 26.3 kg
Length : 1.37 m
Muzzle Velocity : 575 to 700 m/s [1]
Rate of Fire : 520 to 540 rounds per minute [1]
Round types: armor piercing (AP), high explosive (HE)
* HE(M) high explosive mine shot (only MG FF/M)


[1] depending on ammo type used

More detailed info can be found here http://prodocs.netfirms.com/ under "WEAPONS INFO (type,speed,filling)"