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Hispano HS.404
The HS.404 is an autocannon originally designed by and produced by the Swiss arm of the Spanish/Swiss company Hispano-Suiza in the mid-1930s. Production was later moved to the French arm of Hispano-Suiza. It was widely used as an aircraft, naval and land-based weapon by French, British, American and other military services, particularly during World War II. The cannon is also referred to as Birkigt type 404, after its designer Marc Birkigt and later versions based on British development are known as 20 mm Hispano. Firing a 20 mm calibre projectile, it delivered a significant load of explosive from a relatively light weapon. This made it an ideal anti-aircraft weapon for mounting on light vehicles, as well as a fighter aircraft gun, supplementing or replacing the 7.62 mm (.30 calibre) and .303 inch (7.7 mm) machine guns commonly used in military aircraft of the 1930s. The HS.404 was produced by the French subsidiary of Hispano-Suiza, and under license by a variety of ...
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TCM-20
The M45 quad mount is a towed anti-aircraft gun consisting of four .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns mounted in pairs on either side of an armored open-top gunner's compartment with electrical laying. It was developed by the W. L. Maxson Corporation to replace the earlier M33 twin mount (also from Maxson). Although designed as an anti-aircraft weapon, it was also used against ground targets, where it earned the nicknames "meat chopper" and "Krautmower".Rottman, Gordon L., Browning .50-Caliber Machine Guns', Osprey Publishing (2010), , p. 19-20 Introduced in 1944, it saw service as late as the Vietnam War. History In order to develop a mobile anti-aircraft weapon, several 0.5 inch (12.7mm) twin machine gun mounts were tested on the chassis of the M2 half-track including Bendix, Martin Aircraft Company, and Maxson. The Maxson M33 turret mount was preferred and—on the larger M3 half-track (T1E2)—was accepted for service in 1942 as the M13 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage. Th ...
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Explosive
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An explosive charge is a measured quantity of explosive material, which may either be composed solely of one ingredient or be a mixture containing at least two substances. The potential energy stored in an explosive material may, for example, be: * chemical energy, such as nitroglycerin or grain dust * pressurized gas, such as a gas cylinder, aerosol can, or boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion * nuclear energy, such as in the fissile isotopes uranium-235 and plutonium-239 Explosive materials may be categorized by the speed at which they expand. Materials that detonate (the front of the chemical reaction moves faster through the material than the speed of sound) are said to be "high explosives" and materials that deflagrate ar ...
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Oerlikon 20 Mm Cannon
The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II. Many versions of the cannon are still used. Blowback-operated models History Origins During World War I, the German industrialist Reinhold Becker developed a 20 mm caliber cannon, known now as the 20 mm Becker using the advanced primer ignition blowback (API blowback) method of operation. This used a 20×70mmRB cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 300 rpm. It was used on a limited scale as an aircraft gun on ''Luftstreitkräfte'' warplanes, and an anti-aircraft gun towards the end of that war. Because the Treaty of Versailles banned further production of such weapons in Germany, the patents and design works were transferred in 1919 to the Swiss firm SEMAG (''Seebach M ...
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Gas-operated
Gas-operation is a system of operation used to provide energy to operate locked breech, Semi-automatic firearm, autoloading firearms. In gas-operation, a portion of high-pressure gas from the Cartridge (firearms), cartridge being fired is used to power a mechanism to dispose of the spent Casing (ammunition), case and insert a new cartridge into the Chamber (firearms), chamber. Energy from the gas is harnessed through either a port in the Gun barrel, barrel or a trap at the Muzzle (firearms), muzzle. This high-pressure gas impinges on a surface such as a piston head to provide motion for unlocking of the Firearm action, action, extraction of the spent case, ejection, cocking of the Hammer (firearm), hammer or striker, chambering of a fresh cartridge, and locking of the action. History The first mention of using a gas piston in a single-shot breech-loading rifle comes from 1856, by the German Edward Lindner who patented his invention in the United States and Britain. In 1866, Eng ...
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Hispano-Suiza 8
The Hispano-Suiza 8 is a Internal combustion engine cooling, water-cooled V8 engine, V8 SOHC aero engine introduced by Hispano-Suiza in 1914 that went on to become the most commonly used liquid-cooled engine in the aircraft of the Entente Powers during the First World War. The original Hispano-Suiza 8A was rated at and the later, larger displacement Hispano-Suiza 8F reached . Hispano-Suiza 8 engines and variants produced by Hispano-Suiza and other companies under licence were built in twenty-one factories in Spain, France, Britain, Italy, and the U.S. Derivatives of the engine were also used abroad to power numerous aircraft types and the engine can be considered as the ancestor of another successful engine by the same designer, the Hispano-Suiza 12Y (and Soviet Klimov V12 derivative aero-engines) which was in service during the Second World War. Design and development Origins At the beginning of World War I, the production lines of the Barcelona based Hispano-Suiza automobil ...
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Oerlikon FF
The FF were a series of 20mm autocannon introduced by Oerlikon in the late 1920s. The name comes from the German term ''Flügel Fest'', meaning ''wing mounted, fixed'', being one of the first 20mm guns to be small and light enough to fit into a fighter aircraft's wing. The FF series inspired many 20mm cannon used in World War II, including the Hispano-Suiza HS.404 (adopted by the French, British and U.S. forces), the German MG FF, and the Japanese IJNAS's Type 99 cannon. Design The basic design was based on the original Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, in turn based on the German Empire's Becker 20 mm cannon of World War I. In the post-war period, Oerlikon had developed the original design to produce three autocannons with increasingly powerful rounds; the original model, later known as the "F", used the Becker 20x70mm round, the newer "L" model used a 20x100 round, and finally the "S" model used a 20x110. All of these weapons used the API blowback operational principle. In 1935 Oerlikon ...
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Advanced Primer Ignition
Blowback is a system of operation for Semi-automatic firearm, self-loading firearms that obtains energy from the motion of the cartridge case as it is pushed to the rear by expanding gas created by the ignition of the propellant charge. Several blowback systems exist within this broad principle of operation, each distinguished by the methods used to control bolt (firearms), bolt movement. In most actions that use blowback operation, the Breech-loading weapon, breech is not locked mechanically at the time of firing: the inertia of the bolt and recoil , relative to the weight of the bullet, delay opening of the breech until the bullet has left the barrel. A few locked breech designs use a form of blowback (example: primer actuation) to perform the unlocking function. The blowback principle may be considered a simplified form of Gas-operated reloading, gas operation, since the cartridge case behaves like a piston driven by the powder gases. Other operating principles for self-loadin ...
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World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in European theatre of World War I, Europe and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, Middle East, as well as in parts of African theatre of World War I, Africa and the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I, Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of Artillery of World War I, artillery, machine guns, and Chemical weapons in World War I, chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of Tanks in World War I, tanks and Aviation in World War I, aircraft. World War I was one of the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated World War I casualties, 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian de ...
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Becker Type M2 20 Mm Cannon
The Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon was a German autocannon developed for aircraft use during World War I by . It was first mass-produced in 1916 and was installed in a variety of aircraft. It was the only German autocannon to see service in the air during the war. The Becker also served as the pattern for the famous Swiss-built Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, which is in service to this day, and in a later form, was the original inspiration, through the Swiss design after World War I, for the World War II German Luftwaffe's MG FF (''Maschinengewehr Flügel Fest'', "fixed wing-mount automatic ordnance") 20 mm autocannon design. History Design and development The original design was based on the 19 mm Becker cannon cartridge by the Coenders brothers at Stahlwerke Becker of Reinickendorf, Germany. Development commenced in 1913 and was therefore already advanced when the War Ministry issued a specification in June 1915 calling for an aircraft cannon of under 37 mm caliber a ...
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303 British
The .303 British (designated as the 303 British by the C.I.P. and SAAMI) or 7.7×56mmR, is a calibre Rim (firearms)#Rimmed, rimmed Tapering (firearms), tapered bottleneck centerfire rifle Cartridge (firearms), cartridge. The .303-inch bore diameter is measured between rifling Rifling, lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows the traditional black powder convention. It was first manufactured in United Kingdom, Britain as a stop-gap black powder round put into service in December 1888 for the Lee–Metford rifle. From 1891 the cartridge used smokeless powder which had been the intention from the outset, but the decision on which smokeless powder to adopt had been delayed. It was the standard British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth military cartridge for rifles and machine guns from 1889 until it was replaced by the 7.62×51mm NATO in the 1950s. Cartridge specifications The .303 British has a 3.64 litre, mL (56 grain (measure), gr H2O) cartridge case capa ...
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