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The Annoyed Man wrote: Uuuuuhhhh, because it wasn't even a sparkle in the inventor's eye during the mid-40s?

The Annoyed Man wrote:
Six .50 cals was not limited to P51s.

• P39 Aircobra - one 37mm cannon and two .50 cal. Browning machine guns
• P40 Tomahawk/Kittyhawk/Warhawk - used a mixture of .50 and .30 cal machine guns, usually 2 of each. The British .30 cal versions were in .303. The "E" model did have six .50 cals, with 235 rounds per gun.
• F4F Wildcat - four .50 cal BMGs until the definitive version of the aircraft was released on 1942, with six .50 cals. with 450 rounds/gun.
• F6F Hellcat - six .50 cal BMGS, with 400 rounds per gun. The F6F-5N version built as a night fighter had four .50 cals in the center and outboard mounts, and two 20mm cannons on the inboard mounts, as did the F5F-5P. The planes carried 220 rounds of 20mm for each cannon, and 400 rounds/gun for the .50s.
• F8F Bearcat - limited to four .50 cals as a weight saving measure to provide more armor for the pilot.
• P51 Mustang - six .50 cal BMGs
• The Big Magilla - the P47 Thunderbolt - EIGHT .50 cals with 3,400 rounds of ammo, plus 5" rockets, and up to 2,500 lbs of gravity bombs. (And, in the "razor back" configuration, actually flew faster than the P51.
• F4U Corsair - six .50 cal. BMGs, carried 2,300 rounds......400 for each inner gun, and 375 each for the four outer guns.

The British Hurricane and Spitfires both had eight guns, and the Typhoon had twelve guns, but all of these were in .303 British, not .50 BMG.

All of them carried a hellacious punch aloft. And the technique didn't call for mashing the fire control button and just holding it down. Rounds were fired in short bursts, just like the video shows. When you have six .50s and you fire a 4 round burst, you've just slung 24 big fat bullets at the enemy plane in a couple of seconds or less.

By the way, early jet fighters also carried .50 cals, six at a time.....the F86 being an example.