The was developed for aerial use for the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
in 1932. The Type 92 is a light machine gun and not to be confused with the similarly named
Type 92 heavy machine gun.
Description
It was the standard hand-held machine gun in multi-place IJN aircraft during the most part of the
Pacific War. It proved to be seriously inadequate. Aircraft produced in the later part of the conflict often were equipped with weapons such as
Type 1 and
Type 2 machine guns or
Type 99 cannon.
Essentially a copy of the shroudless post-World War I aircraft-mounted version of the British
Lewis gun, the Type 92 was fed with a 97-round drum magazine and used on a flexible mount. It was chambered in a
Japanese copy of the .303 British cartridge. The main external difference between the two models was the trigger guard, and cooling fins around the barrel and gas piston tube. Neither the post-World War I British aircraft Lewis nor the Japanese copy featured the distinctive thick barrel shroud of the original gun (although ground-based versions generally retained it). It was removed as it was found that the airflow past the aircraft was sufficient for cooling the barrel and eliminating the shroud reduced the mass.
Installations
*
Aichi D1A
*
Aichi D3A
*
Kawanishi E7K2
The Kawanishi E7K was a Japanese three-seat reconnaissance seaplane mainly in use during the 1930s. It was allocated the reporting name Alf by the Allies of World War II.
Design and development
In 1932 the Imperial Japanese Navy requested the Ka ...
[Collier, Basil ''Japanese Aircraft of World War II'' Mayflower Books (1979) pp.62-63]
*
Kawanishi H6K
*
Kawanishi H8K
The Kawanishi H8K was a flying boat used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service during World War II for maritime patrol duties. The Allied reporting name for the type was "Emily".
The Kawanishi H8K was a large, four-engine aircraft designed ...
*
Kyūshū Q1W
*
Mitsubishi F1M2
[Collier, Basil ''Japanese Aircraft of World War II'' Mayflower Books (1979) p.101]
*
Mitsubishi G3M
*
Mitsubishi G4M
The Mitsubishi G4M was a twin-engine, land-based medium bomber formerly manufactured by the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. Its official design ...
*
Nakajima B5N
*
Nakajima B6N
*
Yokosuka B4Y
*
Yokosuka K5Y
* Various others
See also
*
Type 89 machine gun (the Imperial Japanese Army equivalent to the Type 92))
*
MG 15 machine gun
*
MG 81 machine gun
The MG 81 was a German belt fed 7.92×57mm Mauser machine gun which was used in flexible installations in World War II Luftwaffe aircraft, in which capacity it replaced the older drum magazine-fed MG 15.
The MG 81 was developed by Mauser as a d ...
*
Vickers VGO
Notes
References
*
* McNab, Chris. ''Twentieth-century Small Arms''
{{Japanese WWII infantry weapons
Aircraft guns
Machine guns of Japan
World War II machine guns
Military equipment introduced in the 1930s