Previous papers, described the blast loads measured on a long, flat plate near the muzzle of an isolated rifle mounted in a wind tunnel at subsonic and supersonic speeds. For this idealised configuration, these measurements confirmed the validity of the approximate theory due to Frank Smith to predict the level of the blast loads from guns mounted on static or moving aircraft.
However, for real aircraft the gun is generally installed in a blister or fairing and the fuselage adjacent to the muzzle may have considerable curvature. These features, which are different for every installation, modify the blast wave in a way not easily amenable to calculation.
In the present paper the blast loads on the fuselage of a typical fighter aircraft near the muzzle of a cannon were measured in flight at subsonic, transonic and supersonic speeds.