The SN (Savin and Norov) was an aircraft

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

manufactured in small numbers in the Soviet Union before World War II. The gun was intended to achieve a higher rate of fire than the

ShKAS The ShKAS (Shpitalny-Komaritski Aviatsionny Skorostrelny, Shpitalny-Komaritski rapid fire for aircraft; Russian: ШКАС - Шпитального-Комарицкого Авиационный Скорострельный) is a 7.62 mm calibre ...

, while using the same

7.62×54mmR The 7.62×54mmR is a rimmed rifle cartridge developed by the Russian Empire and introduced as a service cartridge in 1891. Originally designed for the bolt-action Mosin–Nagant rifle, it was used during the late tsarist era and throughout th ...

cartridge. In order to achieve this goal, the barrel and bolt moved in opposite directions. Sources vary as to high a rate of fire was actually achieved. One indicates "more than 3600 RPM"On-line errata to the book ''Flying Guns World War II''
/ref> while others give the 2800–3000 RPM range.Широкорад А.Б. (2001) ''История авиационного вооружения'' Харвест (Shirokorad A.B. (2001) ''Istorya aviatsionnogo vooruzhenia'' Harvest. ) (''History of aircraft armament''), p. 73 The SN gun was designed in 1934-1935 by I.V. Savin (И.В. Савин) and A.K. Norov (А.К. Норов). According to a Western source, it was offered to the VVS, which rejected it in 1936. Soviet sources indicate that the SN machine gun was installed in the wings of three

Polikarpov I-16 The Polikarpov I-16 (russian: Поликарпов И-16) is a Soviet single-engine single-seat fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it was the world's first low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear to attain ...

aircraft in January 1939; these planes were given the designation I-16 Type 19 and they took part in the

Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...

. The gun was also supposed to be installed in a propeller-synchronized mounting in the I-16 Type 20. Although four planes were built in this configuration, they did not go into service; the Type 20 designation was then reused for I-16 aircraft only armed with ShKAS guns, but capable of carrying

drop tank In aviation, a drop tank (external tank, wing tank or belly tank) is used to describe auxiliary fuel tanks externally carried by aircraft. A drop tank is expendable and often capable of being jettisoned. External tanks are commonplace on modern ...

s. A further type I-16 Type 22 was planned to be armed with four propeller-synchronized guns, two of which were supposed to be SN guns (and the other two ShKAS), but this type was apparently never built and was cancelled in August 1939. As with the UltraShKAS, the reliability of the SN machine gun was low, so it did not go into mass production. An SN exemplar could be seen (in 1996) at the Central Air Force Museum.

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Exterior photo

Photo of mount in an I-16 wing
Medium machine guns World War II machine guns 7.62×54mmR machine guns Machine guns of the Soviet Union Aircraft guns of the Soviet Union Trial and research firearms of the Soviet Union Abandoned military projects of the Soviet Union Military equipment introduced in the 1930s {{Machinegun-stub

See also

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