Franz Schneider was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internati ...

engineer and aircraft designer. Although he designed several aircraft types, initially for the French aircraft manufacturer

Nieuport Nieuport, later Nieuport-Delage, was a French aeroplane company that primarily built racing aircraft before World War I and fighter aircraft during World War I and between the wars. History Beginnings Originally formed as Nieuport-Duplex in ...

, and later for the German LVG company, he is chiefly remembered for his work in the field of aircraft armament. Schneider was granted the first

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclo ...

(on 15 July 1913) for an interrupter gear allowing a

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 rifl ...

to fire between an aircraft's spinning

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

blades. Full details of Schneider's patent were published in the aviation periodical '' Flugsport'' in September 1914 but the Prussian War Ministry chose not to pursue the idea. The concept of interrupter gear in combat aircraft was realised later in World War I by Germany after

Anthony Fokker Anton Herman Gerard "Anthony" Fokker (6 April 1890 – 23 December 1939) was a Dutch aviation pioneer, aviation entrepreneur, aircraft designer, and aircraft manufacturer. He produced fighter aircraft in Germany during the First World War suc ...

developed the idea. He also developed the rotating gun turret which was installed on

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

"C" type

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

aircraft.van Wyngarden, G (2006). Early German Aces of World War I, Osprey Publishing Ltd.

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* Firearm designers Swiss engineers Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{Switzerland-engineer-stub