It’s obvious to me that he’s fitted a pair of 80% scale LMG 08/15 Spandau machine guns (perhaps chambered in 5.56, for scale?) and plans on defending ze Fatherland!
(I remember a quickly-deleted thread on a general aviation forum about a gentleman who fitted a fully-automatic AC556 (Ruger Mini-14) into the wing of a homebuilt Van’s RV and was intent on using it to strafe coyotes on his property. There was a heated discussion on the legality of this in the US, the short story being that while the FAA may not care, the BATFE might, even if the MG is legally owned, before the thread was summarily deleted. It was comedy gold!)
In Alaska, I’ve heard of the Fish and Game department (and probably others) who’ve fitted Browning semi-auto shotguns to the wing struts of their Piper Cubs and other aircraft for wolf control during the 70’s and 80’s though.
Combat is a loose term. The guns are for aerial display where we use gas operate machine guns to simulate aerial combat. Caliber, about that big - lol. On some, we have smoke systems to simulate a hit or shoot down. If we can get a set of opposing forces - we simulate or make a mock combat making a little noise and fry a little chicken (pop smoke, smells like a chicken BBQ). The machine guns simulate the 600-650 Rounds Per Minute - close to the originals, and the exhaust can egest copious amounts of white smoke to make it look realistic. We do have a closed tactical away from the crowd and as such can really let er rip - keeping safety in mind. ll is well coordinated so as to put on a good show, but keeping ll participants safe.
As to Spandau, they were Hiram Maxim’s built by the in Spandau, Germany plant, noted for their superior work. Did you know the Vicker’s and the Maxim are essentially the same machine gun? Hiram needing money to develop and build the Maxim Gun went to Vicker’s for funding. In return for funding, Maxim gave Vicker’s the rights to build. The British saw they could lighten the gun by turning it upside down - which they did.
BTW, the movies usually show most aerial guns in black. This is Hollywood. After some research, it is believe the guns would have been a manifold gray patina color. Reason, after each mission the guns would have been removed, ammo removed and dumped into a vat of solvent, a brush run thru the barrel and hung to dry before re-installing on the acft.
