Firing Two Guns at Once. An ingenious method of firing both overhead and straight ahead in British fighting airplanes
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Title (Dublin Core)
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Firing Two Guns at Once. An ingenious method of firing both overhead and straight ahead in British fighting airplanes
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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Firing Two Guns at Once. An ingenious method of firing both overhead and straight ahead in British fighting airplanes
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Caption: It is a busy time for the aviator when he has to fire at one enemy in front and another above him at the same time
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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AS readers of the POPULAR SCIENCE
MonNTHLY know, the machine-gun
of a fighting airplane is fixed in posi-
tion. It fires through the propeller, the
gun and the propeller being so synchron-
ized that the
bullets will
not hit the
blades. In
some Nieu-
port air-
planes as
many as five
machine-
guns can be
fired simul-
taneously,
three of the
guns being
mounted on
the top
plane, and
two in the
usual posi-
tion to fire
through the
propeller.
All of these
five guns are
Vickers-
Maxims
and fire
straight ahead. The entire machine must
be turned to aim them.
It is conceivable that a situation might
arise when the pilot of the fighting plane
must be prepared to meet not only an ad-
versary who is swooping down on him
from overhead but also another adversary
in front of him. In such a situation his
fixed machine-guns will aid him little,
especially against the man above him.
In one of the latest British one-man
fighting machines, therefore, two ma-
chine-guns are so arranged that the
pilot fires both of them at once and yet
one of them enables him to fire overhead.
One of the machine-guns is a Vickers-
Maxim which is fixed and which fires
through the propeller in the usual way;
the other is a Lewis which is attached to
the upper plane and which is fired from
the control lever or “joy stick,” as it is
called. The Lewis gun has a locking de-
vice operated from the butt by pushing a
button, so that the gun can be locked in
any posi-
tion on its
swivel.
Suppose
the pilot is
attacked by
two enemy
planes. He
has only to
lock the
Lewis so
that it fires
straight
overhead
and to turn
his plane to-
ward one of
the oncom-
ing foes.
With his
right hand
on the Vick-
ers’ trigger,
he can open
fire as soon
as the range
is ripe. His
left hand is on the control lever with
which he governs his airplane and also
fires his Lewis. The Vickers starts its
sharp crackle as he gets a bead on his
enemy. Above him appears another
enemy machine. A quick glance up-
wards, then a sharp pressure with the
thumb of the left hand on the gun
trigger release attached to the control
lever. Rat-tat-tat-tat! and the man who
has been hovering over him like a hawk
receives a stream of bullets.
Throughout the entire fight, the pilot
is able to keep his left hand on the air-
plane control lever. When he changes
drums on the Lewis, he uses his right hand.
These cartridge drums are so made that
they can be renewed without any diffi-
culty in a few seconds.
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Language (Dublin Core)
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emg
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1918-07
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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95
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Filippo Valle
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 93, n. 1, 1918
